<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/">
  <channel>
    <title>foss &amp;mdash; secretsofthedark</title>
    <link>https://secretsofthedark.writeas.com/tag:foss</link>
    <description></description>
    <pubDate>Thu, 14 May 2026 20:58:33 +0000</pubDate>
    <item>
      <title>Invidious: Open Source YouTube (with Dark Web Access!) #invidious #foss</title>
      <link>https://secretsofthedark.writeas.com/invidious-open-source-youtube-with-dark-web-access?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[Invidious: Open Source YouTube (with Dark Web Access!) #invidious #foss&#xA;&#xA;Given that YouTube is owned by Google and Google controls the world (more or less), you might be tempted to look for some alternatives at some point.&#xA;&#xA;There are two that I happen to know of, one of which I covered on the other blog. The first is a href=&#39;https://newpipe.schabi.org/&#39;NewPipe/a, which I was using for quite some time until the app started to have issues and wouldn&#39;t show videos anymore. It may be that I didn&#39;t have the latest stable release, however.&#xA;&#xA;The second, as the title says, is Invidious, which has both clearnet and onion links! I thought I&#39;d quote part of the description on a href=&#39;https://alternativeto.net&#39;AlternativeTo.net/a, since it covers some of the major features:&#xA;&#xA;em## Official Onion Sites: &#xA;kgg2m7yk5aybusll.onion&#xA;axqzx4s6s54s32yentfqojs3x5i7faxza6xo3ehd4bzzsg2ii4fv2iid.onion&#xA;&#xA;Features: &#xA;Audio-only mode (and no need to keep window open on mobile)&#xA;Open-source (AGPLv3 licensed)&#xA;No ads&#xA;No need to create a Google account to save subscriptions&#xA;Lightweight (homepage is ~4 KB compressed)&#xA;Tools for managing subscriptions: &#xA;Only show unseen videos&#xA;Only show latest (or latest unseen) video from each channel&#xA;Delivers notifications from all subscribed channels&#xA;Automatically redirect homepage to feed&#xA;Import subscriptions from YouTube&#xA;&#xA;Dark mode&#xA;Embed support&#xA;Set default player options (speed, quality, autoplay, loop)&#xA;Does not require JS to play videos&#xA;Support for Reddit comments in place of YT comments&#xA;Import/Export subscriptions, watch history, preferences&#xA;Does not use any of the official YouTube APIs&#xA;Developer API/em&#xA;&#xA;I especially like that it&#39;s available over Tor, although it seems that you do have to enable JavaScript for it to work properly (if that&#39;s something you&#39;re opposed to, then this site may not be ideal).&#xA;&#xA;So far, I haven&#39;t come across any video sharing sites that don&#39;t require JavaScript, so you&#39;re out of luck in that department. &#xA;&#xA;Here&#39;s a good screenshot of its onion site: img src=&#39;https://i.imgur.com/57otu3P.png&#39;&#xA;&#xA;As I said above, it&#39;s open source as well, so here&#39;s its GitHub repository if you want to check that out: a href=&#39;https://github.com/omarroth/invidious&#39;omarroth/invidious: Invidious is an alternative front-end to YouTube/a&#xA;&#xA;You may want to compare YouTube, NewPipe, and Invidious side by side to see which one you&#39;re the most comfortable with.&#xA;&#xA;One other feature that I like on both NewPipe and Invidious is that they make it simple to download videos as well, which YouTube doesn&#39;t (not surprisingly).&#xA;&#xA;Play around with these and let me know which is your favorite! &#xA;&#xA;]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Invidious: Open Source YouTube (with Dark Web Access!) <a href="https://secretsofthedark.writeas.com/tag:invidious" class="hashtag" rel="nofollow"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">invidious</span></a> <a href="https://secretsofthedark.writeas.com/tag:foss" class="hashtag" rel="nofollow"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">foss</span></a></p>

<p>Given that YouTube is owned by Google and Google controls the world (more or less), you might be tempted to look for some alternatives at some point.</p>

<p>There are two that I happen to know of, one of which I covered on the other blog. The first is <a href="https://newpipe.schabi.org/" rel="nofollow">NewPipe</a>, which I was using for quite some time until the app started to have issues and wouldn&#39;t show videos anymore. It may be that I didn&#39;t have the latest stable release, however.</p>

<p>The second, as the title says, is Invidious, which has both clearnet and onion links! I thought I&#39;d quote part of the description on <a href="https://alternativeto.net" rel="nofollow">AlternativeTo.net</a>, since it covers some of the major features:</p>

<p><em>## Official Onion Sites:
* kgg2m7yk5aybusll.onion
* axqzx4s6s54s32yentfqojs3x5i7faxza6xo3ehd4bzzsg2ii4fv2iid.onion</p>

<h2 id="features" id="features">Features:</h2>
<ul><li>Audio-only mode (and no need to keep window open on mobile)</li>
<li>Open-source (AGPLv3 licensed)</li>
<li>No ads</li>
<li>No need to create a Google account to save subscriptions</li>
<li>Lightweight (homepage is ~4 KB compressed)</li>
<li>Tools for managing subscriptions:</li>
<li>Only show unseen videos</li>
<li>Only show latest (or latest unseen) video from each channel</li>
<li>Delivers notifications from all subscribed channels</li>
<li>Automatically redirect homepage to feed</li>

<li><p>Import subscriptions from YouTube</p></li>

<li><p>Dark mode</p></li>

<li><p>Embed support</p></li>

<li><p>Set default player options (speed, quality, autoplay, loop)</p></li>

<li><p>Does not require JS to play videos</p></li>

<li><p>Support for Reddit comments in place of YT comments</p></li>

<li><p>Import/Export subscriptions, watch history, preferences</p></li>

<li><p>Does not use any of the official YouTube APIs</p></li>

<li><p>Developer API</em></p></li></ul>

<p>I especially like that it&#39;s available over Tor, although it seems that you do have to enable JavaScript for it to work properly (if that&#39;s something you&#39;re opposed to, then this site may not be ideal).</p>

<p>So far, I haven&#39;t come across any video sharing sites that don&#39;t require JavaScript, so you&#39;re out of luck in that department.</p>

<p>Here&#39;s a good screenshot of its onion site: <img src="https://i.imgur.com/57otu3P.png"></p>

<p>As I said above, it&#39;s open source as well, so here&#39;s its GitHub repository if you want to check that out: <a href="https://github.com/omarroth/invidious" rel="nofollow">omarroth/invidious: Invidious is an alternative front-end to YouTube</a></p>

<p>You may want to compare YouTube, NewPipe, and Invidious side by side to see which one you&#39;re the most comfortable with.</p>

<p>One other feature that I like on both NewPipe and Invidious is that they make it simple to download videos as well, which YouTube doesn&#39;t (not surprisingly).</p>

<p>Play around with these and let me know which is your favorite!</p>
]]></content:encoded>
      <guid>https://secretsofthedark.writeas.com/invidious-open-source-youtube-with-dark-web-access</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 01 Apr 2019 02:38:31 +0000</pubDate>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>