NewPipe at least already doesn't use the API, it scrapes the website.
... Which it just occurred to me might be one of the reasons Google is pushing that web integrity thing. Dang.
this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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All the web integrity thing would do is force them to use a specific client when accessing YouTube to scrape their site.
Putting shit out on your publicly accessible website enables all who access it to download anything you make available there.
This is just regular cat and mouse.
If my YouTube experience goes away, my hobbies will get some tlc. My reddit experience barely faltered with my transition to Lemmy
We've been through all of this before and we'll go through all of it again.
All the web integrity thing would do is force them to use a specific client when accessing YouTube to scrape their site.
The problem is none of the attested browsers will let you to use them in this way.
We already have DRM for video on the web. I believe it would be a similar problem to getting WideVine L1 content from e.g. Netflix in an open source app.
Ask me why I invested in Vimeo.
But seriously, it will just make competitors thrive.
I'll pay for a nebula subscription before I sit through a single YouTube ad.
Yea I think, if newpipe stops, I would switch to nebula. It would even help my yt addiction and I would support my youtubers without giving a share to youtube.
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Yep... Bummer, but completely in character and expected.
Invidious doesn't use YouTube's API. It merely requests content from YouTube either directly or through a proxy. So, I don't think it'll disappear forever unless the developers stop working on it. It's probably gonna be a game of cat and mouse where YouTube figures out how to break Invidious, and the devs keep finding a workaround.
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all of these are scrapers, so they will work unless YouTube gets rid of its web version
Or if Google implements some kind of feature that requires your browser to vouch that it's not gonna play shenanigans with the page.
Nah, nobody would be that crazy.
Fair.
I think they mean something like widevine a la Netflix. Granted there are bypasses for some levels, but that could be a problem imo, iiuc that's why there aren't any alternate frontends for Netflix or HBO. I think that would also potentially mean issues playing YouTube in chromium or firefox on Linux if they used L1 (not sure what the current state of widevine on Linux is, last time I had Netflix I couldn't watch on Linux and had to use my phone or Chromecast)
Or until they implement a trust model that denies access to uncertified user-agents?
Google isn't going to kill YouTube's API any time soon. It's how billions of videos are viewable in apps and pages across the internet. They make far more money on that than any lost revenue by people using third party apps. Shutting down API access would be one of the most impactful events to the internet in history. Major lost viewership and advertising revenue coupled with extreme consumer backlash. Most devastating would be developer backlash, as they would all need to scramble to find alternatives.
Oh, thought this was an article with facts and figures, no someone's doomsaying and fear mongering....
Many YouTube's third party clients don't use an API and having a public API with built in ads is a gold mine that many of YouTube's embeds rely on for revenue. Doubt they'll destroy that anytime soon.
Along with that, many of YouTube's top creators are already looking for alternatives, floatplane, nebula etc... It just takes a mass exodus to kick start them. And you bet Google is aware of that.
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Was talking to a friend who is a senior tech dude about the YT viewing habits of our kids. Asked if he had any recommendations for alt clients and he said… just pay for YT premium 🙃
To be fair, the guy just probably didn't want to become your tech support for life. :P
If you care, you can try this, assuming you meant clients for TV: https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext
I use this in my TV and it is amazing. But I won't advertise it anywhere because I'm afraid Google will just come up with a way to kill it.
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"Don't want your kids seeing ads that are absolutely not for kids? Easy! Just pay us!"
Seriously it's so hypocritical that they demonetize swearing yet show gambling, alcohol, and even the occasional barely-not-porn sexualized ad without a second thought.
It's not hypocrisy, it's for $. $ means it's not hypocrisy. Haven't you been paying attention?
Yeah because I would love to pay for attention
pay for attention
Isn't that basically what their "superchat" feature in YouTube live is? Pay money to force the host to read your comment? IDK I've never used it and don't intend to.
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I'm about to have a daughter and was thinking about this also.
I have been using Tube Archivist for months and its exactly what you need. You can control what subscriptions they watch, set download limits, etc.
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As long as youtube has RSS, you can still get videos.
I built this https://codeberg.org/mister_monster/YouTube2Peertube many years ago to help people resolve these problems.
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I welcome the rise of their replacements.
Well there's Kodi's Netflix interface, looks pretty alternative to me: https://github.com/CastagnaIT/plugin.video.netflix
There's always a way
There are a few creators who I can’t watch anywhere else, but as soon as Invidious stops working I’m out.
You can't save anything unless there's a YouTube competitor. Google can do whatever it wants.
Nah, we’ll just switch to webscraping if APIs get locked behind a paywall. Let’s see how those sites handle it when millions of people are using a scraping based client in the future. I can imagine it feeling a lot like being the victim a relentless ddos attack.
This is exactly what the proposed Web Integrity API seeks to prevent. That's what makes it terrifying.
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They successfully went after Vanced 2 years ago so it's shouldn't be too far fetched for them.
And yet here I am using Revanced, which is even better than Vanced was
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it's a common theory that the only reason they went after Vanced is because the Vanced team tried to monetize the mod by introducing NFTs
Many people in modding and fan communities convince themselves that companies only go after projects if they try to make money, but we also see that happening with free projects all the time, if they get enough attention.
Seeing that Google is already sending warnings to people who try to watch YouTube with adblockers, I don't think that's what made the difference.
They went after vanced because they made money (they tried selling nfts) from from modifying google's proprietary code. NewPipe team wrote everything themselves and dont make money from google code (they probably make no money at all)
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