With Reddit shutting down its API setting a precedent in the corporate tech world (and Reddit was a major outlier in that a ton of their users are technical minded and support third party clients, YouTube does not have that kind of userbase and will not get backlash for it), Twitter doing whatever the fuck they’re doing, and Google already hellbent on destroying ad blockers, the days of Newpipe, Invidious, and Freetube are numbered. Wouldn’t be surprised if they implement Netflix level DRM tomorrow that makes alt clients impossible. I say savour your alt clients while you can guys, you won’t be able to soon.

  • StewartGilligan@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

      • biscuits@lemmy.sdfeu.org
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        1 year ago

        But pretty much in the same way as the YouTube’s frontend requesting content from YouTube’s backend. This is an equivalent of you loading a video on YouTube then going to developer tools and copying links from the Network tab. AFAIK all tools (Invidious, Piped, yt-dl) work this way.

        • Mubelotix@jlai.lu
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          1 year ago

          Yes. The problem is, it’s easy for google to break it again and again and again. I think we should just end Youtube

          • Anders429@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Right, the best way to win here is just not to play. Stop watching content on YouTube altogether. Find alternative ways to watch that content, or simply don’t watch it at all.

          • CurseBunny [she/her]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 year ago

            So instead of scraping the website the easier solution is to end Youtube?

            Who wants to call Google and give them the difficult news that Youtube isn’t being renewed for another season?

      • bighi@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Depending on the definition, loading a web page might me called an API, but that’s not what people mean when they talk about APIs.