Software:Invidious

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Invidious
Invidious-logo.svg
Original author(s)Omar Roth
Developer(s)Samantaz Fox,[1] Émilien Devos (unixfox),[1] Matthew McGarvey[1]
Initial releaseAugust 13, 2018; 5 years ago (2018-08-13)
Stable release
2023.06.02-2bdf3ef / June 2, 2023; 8 months ago (2023-06-02)
Repositorygithub.com/iv-org/invidious
Written inCrystal, HTML, JavaScript
TypeFrontend
LicenseAGPLv3
Websiteinvidious.io

Invidious is a free and open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.[2][3] It is available as a Docker container,[4] or from the GitHub master branch.[5] It is intended to be used as a lightweight and "privacy-respecting" alternative to the official YouTube website.[2] Many privacy preserving redirecting software as well as YouTube clients use Invidious instances.[6][7][8][9]

Version history

Invidious was originally released as Version 0.1.0 on 13 August 2018 and was created by Omar Roth.[1] Notable updates include:[10]

  • Search and play YouTube videos (since 0.1.0)[11]
  • Official developer API (since 0.1.0)[11]
  • Geo-restriction bypassing (since 0.1.0)[11]
  • XSS Protection (since 0.5.0)[12]
  • Search filters (since 0.6.0)[13]
  • Support for playlist RSS feeds (since 0.6.0)[13]
  • 1080p video support (since 0.7.0)[14]
  • Support for watching playlists (since 0.9.0)[15]
  • Support for translations (since 0.13.0)[16]
  • Continues support for annotations after YouTube removed them (since 0.13.0)[16]
  • Support for .onion instances (since 0.13.0)[16]
  • Support for YouTube's "Trending" page (since 0.13.0)[16]
  • Support for downloading videos (since 0.14.0)[17]
  • Video previews (since 0.17.0)[18]
  • Web notifications (since 0.18.0)[19]
  • Support for YouTube's "Communities" tab (0.19.0)[20]
  • Custom playlists (since 0.20.0)[21]

Technology

Invidious does not use the official YouTube API, but scrapes the website for video and metadata such as likes and views.[11] This is done intentionally to decrease the amount of data shared with Google. The web-scraping tool is called the Invidious Developer API.[11] It is also partially used in the free and open-source app, Yattee.[22] In 2020, Omar Roth stated that he would be stepping down from the project and shutting down the main instance at invidio.us.[23] However, the project still continues and unofficial instances of the service still exist.[24]

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Team" (in en-us). https://invidious.io/team/. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 "5 Apps to Protect Your Privacy on YouTube and Stop Google From Tracking You" (in en-US). 2021-08-28. https://www.makeuseof.com/apps-to-protect-your-privacy-on-youtube-and-stop-google-from-tracking-you/. 
  3. Betts, Andy (November 14, 2019). "How to Watch Flagged YouTube Videos Without Logging In". https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/nsfwyoutube-watch-flagged-youtube-videos/. 
  4. "Installation - Invidious Documentation". https://docs.invidious.io/installation/#docker. 
  5. "Installation - Invidious Documentation". https://docs.invidious.io/installation/#manual-installation. 
  6. "Improve Your Safari Browsing Experience With These Automatic Redirects" (in en). 2022-11-22. https://lifehacker.com/improve-your-safari-browsing-experience-with-these-auto-1849812013. 
  7. "The 8 Best Media Players for the Steam Deck" (in en). 2023-05-07. https://www.makeuseof.com/best-media-players-for-steam-deck/. 
  8. "How to Watch YouTube Videos in the Linux Terminal With ytfzf" (in en). 2022-11-23. https://www.makeuseof.com/watch-youtube-videos-in-linux-terminal/. 
  9. Kocher, Laveesh (2022-12-01). "FreeTube, An Open Source Private YouTube Client" (in en-US). https://www.opensourceforu.com/2022/12/freetube-an-open-source-private-youtube-client/. 
  10. "Releases · iv-org/invidious" (in en). https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/releases. 
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 "Release Week 1: Invidious API and Geo-Bypass · iv-org/invidious" (in en). https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/releases/tag/0.1.0. 
  12. "Release Week 5: Privacy and Security · iv-org/invidious" (in en). https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/releases/tag/0.5.0. 
  13. 13.0 13.1 "Release Week 6: Filters and Thumbnails · iv-org/invidious" (in en). https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/releases/tag/0.6.0. 
  14. "Release Week 7: 1080p and Search Types · iv-org/invidious" (in en). https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/releases/tag/0.7.0. 
  15. "Release Week 9: Playlists · iv-org/invidious" (in en). https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/releases/tag/0.9.0. 
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 "Release Version 0.13.0: Translations, Annotations, and Tor · iv-org/invidious" (in en). https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/releases/tag/0.13.0. 
  17. "Release Version 0.14.0: Community · iv-org/invidious" (in en). https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/releases/tag/0.14.0. 
  18. "Release Version 0.17.0: Player and Authentication API · iv-org/invidious" (in en). https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/releases/tag/0.17.0. 
  19. "Release Version 0.18.0: Native Notifications and Optimizations · iv-org/invidious" (in en). https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/releases/tag/0.18.0. 
  20. "Release Version 0.19.0: Communities · iv-org/invidious" (in en). https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/releases/tag/0.19.0. 
  21. "Release Version 0.20.0: Custom Playlists · iv-org/invidious" (in en). https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/releases/tag/0.20.0. 
  22. Yattee, Yattee, 2022-08-24, https://github.com/yattee/yattee, retrieved 2022-08-24 
  23. "Omar Roth". https://omar.yt/posts/stepping-away-from-open-source. 
  24. "Invidious Instances". https://api.invidious.io/. 

External links