Opening Youtube links in a specific program.

[GTP]

I regularly get sent links in Signal to various content on Youtube.

Example link:

I'm wondering if anyone knows of a way to open Youtube links in a specific program.

Presently, clicking the links opens them in my browser, Librewolf, because they are https:// links.

I would like to open the links in Freetube (freetubeapp.io) as it has zero advertising or other tracking, aggregating BS, or other stuff that Google loves to run on Youtube.

I cant seem to find a way in Windows 11 for doing this. I've tried the "official Freetube add-on" from Mozilla, but it doesn't work (as it doesn't for many others.)

Also tried a different add-on (freetube - re director) but get the same non working result.

Is this possible?

Also trying to find a way of doing this in Linux Mint as well but both these extensions fail as they do on Windows.

TIA.

 

[britechguy]

Just curious if you've followed the instructions on the FreeTube GitHub page, https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube, in the ReadMe in the section entitled, Browser Extension. There appears to be a Firefox and derivatives and Chrome and derivatives extension that's needed but is not written/maintained by the FreeTube folks. Here's a snippet of the pertinent bit of that page:

• Open videos from your browser directly into FreeTube (with extension)

Browser Extension​

FreeTube is supported by the Privacy Redirect and LibRedirect extensions, which will allow you to open YouTube links into FreeTube.

Important

You must enable the option within the advanced settings of the extension for it to work.

• Download Privacy Redirect for Firefox or Google Chrome.
• Download LibRedirect for Firefox or Google Chrome.

Note

This extension does not work on Linux portable builds!

If you have issues with the extension working with FreeTube, please create an issue in this repository instead of the extension repository.


----------------
It appears that the LibRedirect extension is a bit more limited in its focus than Privacy Redirect is. The one you choose will really depend on personal preference. Take a look at the GitHub pages for each project which are given in the "FreeTube is supported," opening line to decide which one suits you best.

 

[GTP]

Also trying to find a way of doing this in Linux Mint as well but both these extensions fail as they do on Windows.

As I mentioned in my post, I did try the extensions (both of them).
Doing some further reading found on Reddit and elsewhere it appears that the extensions are very "hit and miss" in their functionality.
Thank you anyway.

 

[britechguy]

Well, I'm not having any issue with those extensions in Firefox,

For Firefox, once I've installed LibRedirect, I have to do this in it's own settings:


If you want FreeTube as your front end player, you need to select it. Then, the first time the attempt is made to redirect, you will get a pop-up dialog something like this:


Then, the YouTube link you used should appear in FreeTube in the desktop App:


The process for the Chromium-based browsers (other than Opera) is more complicated as far as setup goes: https://libredirect.github.io/download_chromium.html

Edge is being a pain about allowing me to turn the extension on even after installing it. I'm going to try Vivaldi a bit later.

Addendum: Following the instructions at the above libredirect github page, I had no trouble at all with installing in Vivaldi and having the first try after do precisely the same thing I experienced with Firefox.

Thanks very much for starting this topic, as I'm getting more and more frustrated with YouTube in general, and this makes viewing YouTube content quite a bit less painless under either Firefox or Vivaldi.

 

[britechguy]

BTW, in Vivaldi, for embedded links, here's an example of the context menu which allows you to use Libredirect to force redirect those if you so choose:




BTW, I find it far easier for embedded links to hit the share button, which reveals the link, then activating it. This throws it directly into FreeTube as I have things configured. It's way less tedious than the context menu method.

 

[GTP]

Well, I'm not having any issue with those extensions in Firefox,

For Firefox, once I've installed LibRedirect, I have to do this in it's own settings:
View attachment 16928

If you want FreeTube as your front end player, you need to select it. Then, the first time the attempt is made to redirect, you will get a pop-up dialog something like this:
View attachment 16929

Then, the YouTube link you used should appear in FreeTube in the desktop App:
View attachment 16930

The process for the Chromium-based browsers (other than Opera) is more complicated as far as setup goes: https://libredirect.github.io/download_chromium.html

Edge is being a pain about allowing me to turn the extension on even after installing it. I'm going to try Vivaldi a bit later.

Addendum: Following the instructions at the above libredirect github page, I had no trouble at all with installing in Vivaldi and having the first try after do precisely the same thing I experienced with Firefox.

Thanks very much for starting this topic, as I'm getting more and more frustrated with YouTube in general, and this makes viewing YouTube content quite a bit less painless under either Firefox or Vivaldi.

Hmmm...
Thank you for the research you've done on this - its appreciated. I would very much like this to work as you've demonstrated. I'll do it all again from scratch. I may have missed an important step somewhere.

I'll make a coffee and spend some time on it.
Thanks again

 

[britechguy]

You're welcome. One more thing I just noticed for Libredirect (which is the add-on of those two I chose to try) in Vivaldi is it places a button to access its controls on the browser toolbar:


This is not pinned to the toolbar in Firefox automatically. If you want it there you have to click on the puzzle piece icon for the Extensions Manager, then the gear icon for Libredirect, and choose Pin to Toolbar from the settings menu that shows up.

Also, a second attempt to install in Edge worked just fine. I don't think I skipped any of the steps, but I could have failed to close Edge and reopen it.

But the LibRedirect extension is now working fine in Edge, Vivaldi, and Brave as well as in Firefox.

 

[GTP]

Thank you so much Brian. In my haste I did miss (a few) important steps!

I only needed this to work in Librewolf.

They both ultimately seem to work the same way, so I'll leave both installed but disable Privacy Director and see how Libredirect performs.
Both work exactly the same way as Windows when installed on Linux (apart from the expected slight UI changes).
Whether using Mate or Cinnamon or Windows, there are slight changes in the UI's but nothing dramatic.

I do have one small issue on my own systems in that because I don't allow Librewolf to store cookies, I need to click "Always allow https://youtu.be to open Freetube links" every time but it's no biggie.

It would be much better if the links opened in Freetube directly - rather than the extra step of opening Librewolf first.

I'm glad you're enjoying the freedom from "Youtube Hell" by using Freetube!

 

[britechguy]

It would be much better if the links opened in Freetube directly - rather than the extra step of opening Librewolf first.

I am not quite sure what situation you're describing by this. If I have links I can open them directly in FreeTube, but if the link is presented on a webpage I do, of course, have to have had a web browser open to have found it in the first place. But when I activate it (as I do allow cookies) after giving my consent to open all YouTube links in FreeTube, that's exactly what they do. The default redirect option in LibRedirect Services settings is for "only not embedded," but you can change it to "both." I prefer to leave it as "only not embedded" because I cannot choose FreeTube as an option for embedded links to be redirected to. I do the embedded links using the "get the share link" method I mentioned earlier.

 

[GTP]

I'll try to describe the experience I have.

I get a Youtube link sent to me on Signal. I click that link and Librewolf opens and I get the box with "Always allow https://youtu be to open Freetube links" and the checkbox to remember the preference.

I click the checkbox and click "Open Link" after which Freetube opens with the content playing. (I have autoplay enabled in Freetube)

The next link I receive in Signal I follow the same procedure as above but I have to click the "Open Link" button to progress. (Ticking the box to remember the preference doesn't, so I don't click it) .

I'm sure if I enabled cookies in Librewolf it would work exactly as you described.

 

[Sky-Knight]

The problem is, Windows only allows for one thing to handle a given file type.

In this case your "file type" is a URI handler, which is your default browser. Windows has no mechanism I'm aware of it look at a URL and see the domain bits, and do something different with it.

 

[GTP]

Update:
Well, the wonders and weirdness of software will ever confound and amuse.
It suddenly seems to work as intended without having to click "Open Link" in the browser?

So now, clicking a youtube link in Signal opens Freetube to play the content without any prompts.

Yay!

 

[britechguy]

Well, the wonders and weirdness of software will ever confound and amuse.
It suddenly seems to work as intended without having to click "Open Link" in the browser?

The mysteries of "propagation time" or "what did I do between try 1 and now that could possibly have done this?!!"

You're not alone in being confounded. I'm never amused by this sort of event, but bemused, sure.

 

[GTP]

I appears we have problem with handling certain types off links.

Links like

will open in Freetube as expected, but links

such as

will not.

Hmmm more research.


Edit: This behavior appears to be isolated to one Windows 11 PC only. If I deactivate Libredirect and enable Privacy-Redirector both types of links work and open in Freetube as expected.

I don't, didn't and won't have both enabled at the same time.

 

[britechguy]

LibRedirect isn't working for either one of those links in embedded form, and that's even after I tweaked the settings to this:


and restarted the browser.

Yet, if I click on the Share option and get this:


and click on that link, it invariably goes to FreeTube.

My guess is that something about the format of the embedded links has changed in such a way that LibRedirect is not recognizing them as being embedded YouTube links. I may, or may not, open an issue about this. It's just so simple to hit the Share button and click that link that for the moment I'm willing to work around the issue.

 

[GTP]

It's strange that it only happens on one particular Windows 11 computer with Libredirect though.
All my other PC's - a mix of Linux and Windows - are working perfectly with Libredirect.

For the moment I changed the problematic PC to Privacy-Redirector and it works exactly as it should.

I'm wondering if there is a conflict in settings between Freetube and Libredirect on this particular machine?
I use "LocalAPI" and don't "Proxy videos through Invidious" in Freetube because I seem to have a lot of issues if those settings are set to "InvidiousAPI" and the toggle for "Proxy videos..." being on.

All other instances of Freetube are set the same, and using Libredirect so I'm not sure if that's even an issue.