cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/40815478
Introducing YT-Feeds.
I was looking for an ultra lightweight YouTube client that would allow me to avoid the algorithm, clickbait thumbnails, and AI generated comment sections. After months of work, and getting side tracked many times, YT-Feeds was born. It can be found on GitHub, but is available on the AUR, and can be installed with
binstall, github releases, or viacargodirectly.It is built in Rust with no graphical framework. It functions entirely on key binds and the design philosophy is to have only one page to view at any time.
Features List:
- Fast startup and navigation
- Uses minimal resources (under 1 Mb RAM!)
- Distraction and short form content free
- Allows for searching/subscribing/unsubscribing channels
- Automatically tracks and resumes watch history locally
- Shows recent videos from subscriptions organized by date
- Groups subscriptions into a collective “feed” organized by date
- Categorize and view videos in the ‘watch later’ menu
- Never requires leaving the terminal or using your mouse
- Cross platform support for ARM and x86_64 Windows, MacOS, and Linux
Note: I expect there to be bugs in the future - feel free to submit an issue and I will get to it when I can find the time.
Nice project!
Only somewhat related, but for myself personally, I’ve realized that the default UI for YouTube at least, promotes doom scrolling as much as it possibly can. It seems to have a negative effect on my mental health and habits. So I live mostly without YouTube now, with only some occasional (once every few weeks), externally linked videos, that I usually download via
yt-dlpor just quickly watch online. For the online watch, I broke the page so bad with uBO that the page barely works, and there are no recommendations or after-you-finished-viewing transitions.This approach seems to work well. I find YT to be a really dangerous place. In one phrase, “sweet death”.