If you're on iOS, I highly recommend Yattee[1], a free Youtube app with no ads, background playback and sponsor block built-in.
The way they get around App Store restrictions is by claiming that they aren't a Youtube app. They're technically a video-watching app which is supposed to be used with your own personal server. The server API they require, however, is supported by Invidious[2], an open-source, privacy-preserving Youtube front end. If you configure an Invidious instance in settings[3] (you don't have to host your own, there are plenty of them out there), you effectively get access to the entirety of Youtube.
It's not a replacement for the official app by any means, it doesn't have a recommendation feed, it doesn't let you log in with a Google account, so it doesn't sync watch history with your other devices, it doesn't let you cast to Youtube-enabled devices, post comments, scroll through shorts etc, but if you have a playlist or a specific, longer video in mind, it's quite good. It also supports Invidious accounts, which let you manage channel subscriptions.
Maybe I'm just getting old, but as I was reading through the list of features this doesn't have, I just got more and more excited. My watch pattern is pretty much watching videos to solve problems or research some particular thing, and I feel like I find most of them through Google or YouTube search. The recommendations can be pretty good, but there's always those clickbaity, completely unrelated ones mixed in, trying to pull me into a totally separate rabbit hole.
Yattee + Tailscale + Piped greatly increased my consumption of Youtube videos.
Missing most of the features mentioned (recommendations, watch history, google account, shorts) are all pros instead of cons to me. Just an app for intentionally watching content in a no-frills private environment, it's refreshing.
A lot of these alternatives allow you to keep track of subscriptions without a Google account and actually show a chronological feed (which IMO is one of the most annoying things about the official YouTube app). For mindless watching TikTok is my default.
I actually have tried to use TikTok a few times. However I live in a country where I'm not a native speaker and there is no way to set the TikTok region to anywhere except your geographic location. Even when using a VPN, reinstalling the app, and creating an entirely new account, it still knows exactly what country I'm in. That's scary enough to make me not use it much.
But I was bored so I figured, the algorithm is supposed to be good right? It should learn I want English videos pretty quickly.
Nope, I spent about an hour searching exclusively for videos in English, and 99% of all the recommendations were still in Vietnamese. I guess I should be grateful that one privacy invading timewaster is unavailable to me!
I use Vinegar[1] with Safari on all platforms which provides HTML5 video (and PiP etc) but with the other YouTube features. I have the Subscriptions page bookmarked so I get a reverse chronological list from my favourite creators. You could also use channel RSS to do this without an account.
I also use Vinegar, it's great. I recommend the developer's other apps, too. They tend to be simple apps which do one useful thing well, and also have a sense of humour.
Musi on iOS [0] is a fantastic YouTube client which removes ads. The trick, albeit slightly inconvenient, is to copy/paste the exact YT title you wish to view. The search functionality isn’t that good. Some things live like streams don’t work however this has never been an issue for me.
I pay for Premium. Sadly it doesn't stop creators from inserting their own ~ads~ sponsorships into the videos directly so Sponsorblock is still a non-negotiable component of Youtube for me.
I highly recommend Nebula. Not only is it adfree and sponsor free, it’s also much more curated than YouTube so the odds of finding good quality videos there are very high.
Plus I paid for the lifetime subscription there so … no subscription for me.
I looked at all (I think?) of the people on Nebula. I only recognize a few and none of them are people I follow on Youtube. The average quality might be higher, but it doesn't seem like Nebula is a platform for the niche YouTubers that make the platform worthwile for me.
And it is inferior since it lacks sponsor block. I have premium that I use on my phone and it is pretty annoying that pretty much each video still has ads in them in the form of a sponsor segment
At some point I will probably cancel my subscription and use an unofficial app with sponsor block. And that aldo hopefully blocks shorts ad well
It's cheaper if you pay annually (129usd, afair). And YT Premium also includes access to YT Music, which is also ad-free. Plus the annual subscription doesn't auto-renew.
The way they get around App Store restrictions is by claiming that they aren't a Youtube app. They're technically a video-watching app which is supposed to be used with your own personal server. The server API they require, however, is supported by Invidious[2], an open-source, privacy-preserving Youtube front end. If you configure an Invidious instance in settings[3] (you don't have to host your own, there are plenty of them out there), you effectively get access to the entirety of Youtube.
It's not a replacement for the official app by any means, it doesn't have a recommendation feed, it doesn't let you log in with a Google account, so it doesn't sync watch history with your other devices, it doesn't let you cast to Youtube-enabled devices, post comments, scroll through shorts etc, but if you have a playlist or a specific, longer video in mind, it's quite good. It also supports Invidious accounts, which let you manage channel subscriptions.
[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yattee/id1595136629 [2] https://invidious.io/ [3] https://gonzoknows.com/posts/yattee/