Had this question in my mind for a while now, after going through the recent Reddit API drama.

I am a big FOSS advocate, and have moved away from YouTube (but not the contents, lol) because of its invasive tracking practice.

I have been using NewPipe on my phone for a long time now, and I think it’s an excellent piece of work.

I believe I also read somewhere that unlike other third party YouTube Apps, NewPipe doesn’t use YouTube’s API, but instead retrieves data by scraping the website via an Extractor.

Recently I came across LibreTube - which I believe has a slightly different approach. It points to a “Piped API” which acts as an “intermediary” between YouTube and LibreTube ( and I think I also heard that Piped API uses NewPipe Extractor underneath) - I am not hugely tech-savvy, so correct me if I sound weird.

All these said and done - in case YouTube decides to turn rogue one fine morning (like Reddit) - will any of these Apps be impacted?

(And while we are here, can anybody please ELI5 for me the differences between Invidious and Piped?)

Thanks in advance !

  • Brotherly@lemm.ee
    1·
    1 year ago

    I don’t know how these specific apps work, but youtube could change their API at any time, and those changes could effect any app using it. A change could be made that would block access, similar to the reddit api change.

    If a tool is scraping the youtube website, any change to the website could effect the scrapers, but the scrapers could be updated to work with the changes. There is the possibility of down time, but not really for permanent loss of access. This is not really worth chasing for youtube because it would be a never ending game of cat and mouse.

    I also found i like Youtube Revanced over NewPipe. It let’s you sign in to youtube but removes all the ads, let’s you skip in-video intros and ads as well.