Invidious is a
free and open-source
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...
alternative
frontend to
YouTube.
It is available as a
Docker container, or from the
GitHub master branch. It is intended to be used as a lightweight and "privacy-respecting" alternative to the official YouTube website.
Version history
Invidious was originally released as Version 0.1.0 on 13 August 2018 and was created by Omar Roth.
Notable updates include:
*Search and play YouTube videos (since 0.1.0)
* Official developer API (since 0.1.0)
* Geo-restriction bypassing (since 0.1.0)
*
XSS
Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a type of security vulnerability that can be found in some web applications. XSS attacks enable attackers to inject client-side scripts into web pages viewed by other users. A cross-site scripting vulnerability may ...
Protection (since 0.5.0)
* Search filters (since 0.6.0)
* Support for playlist
RSS feeds (since 0.6.0)
*
1080p
1080p (1920×1080 progressively displayed pixels; also known as Full HD or FHD, and BT.709) is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the screen vert ...
video support (since 0.7.0)
* Support for watching playlists (since 0.9.0)
* Support for translations (since 0.13.0)
* Continues support for annotations after YouTube removed them (since 0.13.0)
* Support for
.onion
.onion is a special-use top level domain name designating an anonymous onion service, which was formerly known as a "hidden service", reachable via the Tor network. Such addresses are not actual DNS names, and the .onion TLD is not in the I ...
instances (since 0.13.0)
* Support for YouTube's "Trending" page (since 0.13.0)
* Support for downloading videos (since 0.14.0)
* Video previews (since 0.17.0)
* Web notifications (since 0.18.0)
* Support for YouTube's "Communities" tab (0.19.0)
* Custom playlists (since 0.20.0)
Technology
Invidious does not use the official
YouTube API, but scrapes the website for video and
metadata
Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including:
* Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...
such as likes and views.
This is done intentionally to decrease the amount of data shared with
Google. The
web-scraping tool is called the Invidious Developer API.
It is also partially used in the free and open-source app,
Yattee.
In 2020, Omar Roth stated that he would be stepping down from the project and shutting down the main instance at invidio.us. However, the project still continues and unofficial instances of the service still exist.
See also
*
Comparison of YouTube downloaders
*
Youtube-dl
*
Piped
A pipe is a tubular section or hollow cylinder, usually but not necessarily of circular cross-section, used mainly to convey substances which can flow — liquids and gases (fluids), slurries, powders and masses of small solids. It ...
References
External links
*
Invidious Instances* {{GitHub, iv-org/invidious
YouTube
Websites
Internet properties established in 2018