Alternatives for Android, dedicated apps, players that reduce buffering… if you want to optimize your YouTube experience, these tools will definitely help. However, today I want to add one more to the list, called YouTube-Local. Instead of adopting an app or changing the playback method, YouTube-Local lets us replace the YouTube interface completely, without using its API or relying on JavaScript. It also includes the option to route requests via Tor, and retains several features like video transcription and access to comments.
If you feel your YouTube sessions have lost quality, believe me when I say you’re not the only one. The site is heavier than ever, suffers performance issues in “non-Chromium” browsers, and, honestly, it’s full of junk. The latest “Great Web Hypothesis” suggests that Mountain View is looking to degrade the free version of YouTube so more users jump on the Premium bandwagon. Of course, there’s no proof, but there are days when YouTube just won’t cooperate, and that’s how we arrive at the YouTube-Local project.
YouTube-Local: A Minimalist and Lightweight Interface for YouTube
The official page presents YouTube-Local as a client written in Python that improves user privacy and eliminates a good deal of the lag found in the official interface. One of the most important functions is the ability to send all requests through Tor (except for the video file on googlevideo.com), though this requires manual activation and the use of the Tor Browser. When you load YouTube-Local in a normal browser, the client will warn that “we are not anonymous”, but it will work just the same.
By removing both JavaScript and the YouTube API from the equation, loading times in YouTube-Local are impressive, and we can also observe its behavior through the system console. The only “problem”, so to speak, is that running it isn’t very intuitive at first. Once we download the zip and dump its contents into a temporary folder, we need to run the “run.bat” file. This will create a mini server at “127.0.0.1:8080”, which we finally open in the browser.
Subscriptions depend on the same process we’ve seen in NewPipe and FreeTube: export from YouTube, and manual loading of the CSV file. On the other hand, the Settings section includes several parameters to customize the interface. YouTube-Local lets us change the player type, set the default resolution, prioritize one codec over others, modify theme and font, activate subtitles... there’s a lot to explore here.
Logically, YouTube-Local is not for everyone, and it brings along certain quirks that need a couple of workarounds in the GitHub Issues section (for example, the playback window is too large in some videos when played in theater mode), but personally I think it’s worth the effort, and I recommend downloading a copy. Link below!
Official site and download: Click here — How to download programs from GitHub: Click here
