Smartest thing I've done this month: Disable the YouTube app
I'm using a stock Samsung Galaxy 8 phone right now (with Android 10) and I disabled the YouTube app. I was basically sick of its s***. Since then, I never sign in to the app/site, and so may aspects of using the site are much better now.
Everything is faster, since they don't know me / aren't tracking as much.
I always open YT in Firefox Focus, which doesn't ever keep cookies or history each time I close it, so there's no history for YT to mine each time I visit again.
I'm pretty sure I see fewer ads since I don't have a deep history for YT to mine / target.
More random suggestions from YT means I am mostly broken out of the bubble caused by their tracking. I find new, interesting music, for instance, now, from the suggestions.
Hitting "back" in the browser means I go back wherever I was before, not to the YT home page (like the app used to do to me)
I still visit the site often, and appreciate all the good music and channels I watch, but now it's overall a much more positive experience, more like YT was a few years ago versus the horrible mess it's become recently.
I'd still appreciate any other tips anyone has for making YT visits even more enjoyable.
Base YouTube is a cancer experience. I used vanced back when it existed. The second they shut down, I stopped using mobile YouTube and just used it on Firefox PC with ad block. When I heard reVanced was a thing, I downloaded it and it's essentially just like vanced.
I will never use YouTube without adblock unless they either change their monetization system, or ad system.