Invidious: an alternative front-end to YouTube

[ericdrgn]

@girish Just to make sure we are all on the same page that is the point of Invidious. I don't see it as something that competes with PeerTube in anyway but is still necessary. I think being able to provide a way for users to access YouTube content without using YouTube directly is important.

[girish]

Looks like they have github repo now at https://github.com/iv-org/invidious

[girish]

@ericdrgn do you know the status of the project? It seems they haven't made a release in 2 years now - https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/releases

[timconsidine]

@girish but it's working in stable fashion, lots of sites offering it as a service

[girish]

@timconsidine ah, I was going to say there are 1023 commits to master since the last release but now I saw this note - "Releases are deprecated, build directly from master" (https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/releases/tag/0.20.1)

[LoudLemur]

@girish

I hope Cloudron supports Invidious. The maintainer ceased developing it but it is still widely used by many people and also by some applications. (For example, https://teddit.net (an alternative front-end for Reddit) has options to open Youtube links in an invidio.us instance instead.)

People are still using Youtube (instead of LBRY/Odysee) and a lot of valuable content still remains on Youtube (people haven't started using the one-click import onto Odysee yet.)

Until YT disappears, we need some sort of digital "condom" for Youtube's Big Data, anti-social tracking and privacy destroying crapware. Invidio.us is a good choice.

https://yewtu.be
and
https://invidious.snopyta.org/

are both quite reliable instances which work well. We could do with more such instances, and I hope Cloudron helps make that happen.

[jdaviescoates]

@loudlemur said in Invidious: an alternative front-end to YouTube:

The maintainer ceased developing it

I'd like this too, but that's a bit of a red flag.

Generally Cloudron only likes to include actively maintained apps, for good reason really.

[jk]

@jdaviescoates said in Invidious: an alternative front-end to YouTube:

@loudlemur said in Invidious: an alternative front-end to YouTube:

The maintainer ceased developing it

I'd like this too, but that's a bit of a red flag.

Generally Cloudron only likes to include actively maintained apps, for good reason really.

It might be that the original creator stopped developing it, but a quick look at the repository shows active development. So it seems that it is actively maintained.

[jdaviescoates]

@jk said in Invidious: an alternative front-end to YouTube:

So it seems that it is actively maintained.

Good to hear.

[LoudLemur]

@jk Yes, thanks. And invidio.us is also becoming more widely used. It is one of several, independent projects which seek to protect the users from intrusive corporate surveillance, including:

• nitter.net (for Twitter)
• teddit.net (for Reddit)
• bibliogram.art (for Instagram)

There are some requests to support these projects in the App Wishlist. I am starting one now for Bibliogram. Already one there. Looks like Instagram are blocking all instances...

[LoudLemur]

Invidious keep a Docker image on the Free alternative to DockerHub, Quay:

https://github.com/quay/quay
https://docs.invidious.io/Installation/#automated-installation
https://quay.io/repository/invidious/invidious

Invidio.us is one of several different proxies supported by the brilliant Privacy Redirect browser extension. This tool automatically transforms links on webpages to proprietary sites like Reddit and Twitter and Youtube, to Free proxies like Teddit, Nitter and Invidious:

https://github.com/SimonBrazell/privacy-redirect

[LoudLemur]

@girish There is a Docker for Invidious here:

https://docs.invidious.io/installation/#docker

[RazielKanos]

I think - especially in the times of the GDPR - this is a very interesting thing to have. It allowed you to add YT links free from any trackers, but you still get a video player in the post. Works wonders on social Media, but also in Blog posts

[LoudLemur]

@JOduMonT said in Invidious: an alternative front-end to YouTube:

so they claim to be an alternative front-end to YouTube but I feel it is more like a proxy, such as Searx do for Google Search.

I'm really pro Free/Libre Open Source and believe in decentralization but let's face it, these 2 things are like a cult and/or a religion, you have to practice to be a believer.

Anyway my point is I love the idea of PeerTube (but if they reach 1% of the crowd of YouTube this will be a big success) and

I felt it must be a way to being able to access the content of YouTube without sacrificing our privacy, then I found Invidious.

they invidiously have a docker image and a docker-compose file

Repo: https://github.com/iv-org/invidious

I would like to bump this post and hope that we can support Invidious on Cloudron.

Anybody else interested in making this happen?

[humptydumpty]

@LoudLemur I’ll chip in if others also want to sponsor a paid packaging effort.

[LoudLemur]

@humptydumpty Does Cloudron have a mechanism for crowdfunding packaging?

Also, after the initial packaging, how much work is there when future releases arrive?

[humptydumpty]

@LoudLemur I’m not aware of a crowdfunding feature on this forum but if we get enough contributors, we can hire a dev to package it for us. I’m not sure what is involved in app maintenance but if I’m not mistaken, Cloudron staff take over that responsibility if they choose to add the app to the appstore.

[marcusquinn]

Keep getting upvotes and ping all your social audiences about Cloudron, to bring more eyes to the prizes.

More apps are getting packaged, just a lot of them to get through, and you never know how easy they will be until you hit an issue.

[Kubernetes]

I tried to create a initial package, but they use tools like shards and crystal. I don't have experience with that. Beside of the app is using a postgresql database. A package should be doable, but currently it is too complex for myself.

[LoudLemur]

Well, thank you very much for looking at it, @Kubernetes. I didn't realize it was a particularly complex one. Perhaps if you mention that on the invidious app request thread, one of the others might become curious.

I don't know why they opted for such tech. It might be that Google/Youtube do what they can to prevent apps like Invidious from becoming possible or easily workable and people need to go through contortions as a workaround.

I can begin to see why Invidious has been requested for so long but not packaged yet.

I hope you have more satisfaction with the next application.