Android exists only as a place to push ads into people’s faces, with a focus on getting ad displays into less affluent markets.
iOS exists only as a platform to sell iPhones and iPads, which naturally has a focus on affluent markets.
They’re both in the control of megacorps and I can’t figure out why people hold up Android as some kind of open source hero besides a desire to hate on Apple.
Android consists of way more free and open source software than iOS. There’s a fork of Android, Replicant, which is endorsed by the FSF. Free and open source software does not have owners. It’s true that most people who use it (including me) still use versions of it that are mostly nonfree software. But Android is a step in the right direction, while iOS is one in the wrong direction.
It’s possible to use an Android phone and rarely or never see ads at all. Pretty much the only place I regularly see ads on my (stock) Android phone is in the YouTube app, and I could probably live without that too if I wanted.
I already sometimes access YT through Firefox for Android, mainly for playing music in the background. Maybe I’ll change that at some point, but currently I still normally use the official YouTube app for watching videos.
YouTube ReVanced is the official YouTube app, just with some code patches applied. They avoid being taken down (RIP original Vanced) by only releasing a patcher app and a bunch of lists of patches for various apps.
It’s dead simple (if you’re rooted; unrooted requires jumping through extra hoops). You install the patcher app, a specific version of YouTube (which can be done within said app), select from a looong list of patches (everything from removing ads to integrating SponsorBlock and DeArrow [which changes clickbait titles and thumbnails to something neutral] to restoring the video quality menu to re-enabling background play and picture-in-picture mode to hiding shorts and all those react buttons under vids to blocking videos based on keywords), and the app creates a custom YouTube APK with all those patches applied.
It’s impossible to go back to stock after using ReVanced. I have over fifty patches applied and without them the app is a web of dark patterns and enshittification. With them I have a simple app with a few buttons per page (just the ones I use) that opens directly to a feed containing only the videos I want to watch.
The downside is it’s a pain to setup without root since YouTube is usually a system app, but with root you can even mount ReVanced over the base app so it’s completely undetectable by the system (though there’s always a chance Google will add something within the app to catch users that the RV team might not catch due to YouTube’s infamously convoluted design and server-side A/B testing).
For unrooted you only have to.install revanced microg once and login and the rest is the same as rooted basically just that it installs as an another app.
Android exists only as a place to push ads into people’s faces, with a focus on getting ad displays into less affluent markets.
iOS exists only as a platform to sell iPhones and iPads, which naturally has a focus on affluent markets.
They’re both in the control of megacorps and I can’t figure out why people hold up Android as some kind of open source hero besides a desire to hate on Apple.
Android consists of way more free and open source software than iOS. There’s a fork of Android, Replicant, which is endorsed by the FSF. Free and open source software does not have owners. It’s true that most people who use it (including me) still use versions of it that are mostly nonfree software. But Android is a step in the right direction, while iOS is one in the wrong direction.
It’s possible to use an Android phone and rarely or never see ads at all. Pretty much the only place I regularly see ads on my (stock) Android phone is in the YouTube app, and I could probably live without that too if I wanted.
And you can!
Newpipe
PipePipe
Tubular
SmartTube (Android TV)
FreeTube
Flow
NouTube
Invidious/Materialous
LibreTube
SkyTube
YouTube ReVanced
All these apps and more allow you YouTube Premium features for absolutely free!
I already sometimes access YT through Firefox for Android, mainly for playing music in the background. Maybe I’ll change that at some point, but currently I still normally use the official YouTube app for watching videos.
YouTube ReVanced is the official YouTube app, just with some code patches applied. They avoid being taken down (RIP original Vanced) by only releasing a patcher app and a bunch of lists of patches for various apps.
It’s dead simple (if you’re rooted; unrooted requires jumping through extra hoops). You install the patcher app, a specific version of YouTube (which can be done within said app), select from a looong list of patches (everything from removing ads to integrating SponsorBlock and DeArrow [which changes clickbait titles and thumbnails to something neutral] to restoring the video quality menu to re-enabling background play and picture-in-picture mode to hiding shorts and all those react buttons under vids to blocking videos based on keywords), and the app creates a custom YouTube APK with all those patches applied.
It’s impossible to go back to stock after using ReVanced. I have over fifty patches applied and without them the app is a web of dark patterns and enshittification. With them I have a simple app with a few buttons per page (just the ones I use) that opens directly to a feed containing only the videos I want to watch.
The downside is it’s a pain to setup without root since YouTube is usually a system app, but with root you can even mount ReVanced over the base app so it’s completely undetectable by the system (though there’s always a chance Google will add something within the app to catch users that the RV team might not catch due to YouTube’s infamously convoluted design and server-side A/B testing).
For unrooted you only have to.install revanced microg once and login and the rest is the same as rooted basically just that it installs as an another app.