Youlag doesn't come with the core FreshRSS, it's an extension you need to manually install. You can follow the install instructions here to learn how to install Youlag. It's the same method that you use to install any other third-party extension for FreshRSS.
Once installed, the extensions page should look like this:
Just to double check, is the Youlag extension enabled in "Settings -> Extensions"?
The view you described sounds like what FreshRSS would look like if Youlag isn't enabled.
If you’re thinking of SponsorBlock, Youlag doesn’t support that feature. In this recent comment, I’ve shared why that is the case.
For traditional adblocking, I would suggest using uBlock Origin, which is also available on Android for firefox-based browsers.
Edit: To clarify, there are no adblocking features built-in to Youlag.
I don't use Grayjay myself, but I tried it a long time ago, so this what I recall.
Grayjay uses a web scraper to feed the stream into its own video player, which lets them add features such as timestamp, SponsorBlock, and background playback.
Youlag is less sophisticated as it's solely a client‑side approach that embeds the official YouTube player. If you however add your own Invidious instance via the Youlag settings, you can play it through Invidious instead.
With Youlag in FreshRSS, everything runs in the browser, so there’s no device syncing needed. That also means it even works on iOS devices, and essentially anything that can run a modern browser.
Watch videos in FreshRSS like it's YouTube: "Youlag" extension (v4.0.3)
Youlag is a FreshRSS extension that allows you to browse your YouTube RSS feed through a modern video-centered interface. It incorporates a bunch of quality-of-life features and mobile friendly layout.
Supports both text-based and video feed content.
Why?
For those who prefer not to use a Google account to stay connected with creators, following via RSS provides a way to do so without being tied to a specific platform.
Since FreshRSS is web-based, you can access your subscriptions and playlists from any device.
Recent features:
- Add your own Invidious instance to use it as video playback source.
- Simulated "Picture-in-Picture" mode, allowing scrolling through the feed while keeping the video in the bottom corner of the page.
Other features:
- Fullscreen viewing for videos and articles.
- Familiar video layout to e.g. YouTube.
- Dark mode.
- Redesigned mobile menus for better one-handed navigation.
**Note for existing Youlag
As a Lemmy user myself, I totally get the sentiment. GitHub isn’t ideal, and I had also considered Codeberg in the past (not for this project, but way back for others). Unfortunately, the simple reason is that the community is already on there, which makes getting contributions and engagement much easier. Managing and tracking issues across two platforms would be quite (mentally) taxing, which is on top of the effort already going into developing the app.
I'm glad to hear it's being used frequently! I've heard a similar, but not exactly the same use case, so I recommend submitting a feature request on GitHub. That way, I can review it later to assess if the feature could be included when I plan ahead for new releases.
EXIF data is removed by default, at the moment, there's no way to keep those data. I personally see that more as a feature than a bug though. The primary reason why there is no option to keep EXIF data is to maintain feature parity across different image formats.
The conversion option "Default" is meant to retain the file format when possible, but you can actively select the other options like jpg or webp if that fits your use case better.
Currently, only SVG to PNG is supported. SVGOMG is a great tool I’ve used many times as a user, but since it runs as a Node.js app, it would require server-side processing, unlike the local browser-based approach of this app.
If I understand it correctly, then yes, that's the case! I've utitlized several libraries such as "Browser Image Compression", "heic-to", and more, to wrap it in a web interface.
MAZANOKE v1.1.0: Self-hosted local image optimizer in your browser — now supports HEIC, clipboard paste, and more
MAZANOKE is a simple image optimizer that runs in your browser, works offline, and keeps your images private without ever leaving your device.
Created for everyday people and designed to be easily shared with family and friends, it serves as an alternative to questionable "free" online tools.
See how you can easily self-host it here:
https://github.com/civilblur/mazanoke
Highlights from v1.1.0 (view full release note)
I'm delighted to present some much-requested features in this release, including support for HEIC file conversion!
- Added support to convert
HEIC,AVIF→JPG,PNG,WebP. - Paste image/files from clipboard to start optimization.
- When setting a file size limit, you can switch between units MB and KB.
- Remember last-used settings, stored locally in the browser.
The support from the community has been incredibly encouraging, an
No worries! This setup ended up working better than I thought, and I've been using it as my primary way of interfacing with youtube.
Addressing the subscribing part; I had similar requirements, so I started subscribing via FreshRSS while using a custom theme to give it a YouTube-like experience.
I shared the setup a few month ago here: https://lemmy.world/post/21381606
Edit: One of the benefits of using selfhosted RSS with a web interface is that it is platform agnostic.
Looking forward to it, feel free and share it once it's ready, or if you need any feedback.
Hopefully this will spark some interest in that!
I have limited knowledge of what limitations extensions have at the moment, but considering FreshRSS is server side rendered, integrating DeArrow on a deeper level would be ideal (if possible). It would mean that the thumbnail and title you get when you load the page would immediately be the non-clickbait ones, and it would only need to run it once for each video (if cached).
I did however test DeArrow's API and it was very straightforward. However, running it as a client-side script would essentially mean that every video would have to be checked and "DeArrowed" on the fly, and it would do that for every page refresh. That might not be very performant for you, nor DeArrow's free API service.
In short, it should be possible, but not ideal. I'm personally interested in the idea as well, but I'm not sure if I'll have time to tackle this.
It applies the theme across the entire instance!
I believe it could be done however, but it's likely more suitable as an extension, opposed to a "theme" that relies on client-side css/js. I haven't explored the documentations for extensions as I intended this to be a "quick" solution to get a youtube-like experience.
Browse FreshRSS like YouTube: "Youlag Theme for FreshRSS"
"Youlag Theme for FreshRSS" provides a video-focused browsing experience for your RSS subscriptions. It tries to provide a similar experience to YouTube, primarily through its layout using CSS, but also a little bit of Javascript.
Git repo for more details: https://github.com/civilblur/youlag
In case you're not aware, "FreshRSS is a self-hosted RSS feed aggregator".
The idea is that you subscribe to content creators through YouTube's RSS feed https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id={id_goes_here}, then browse, watch, save to playlist ("label"), right within FreshRSS.
There's also third-party extension for FreshRSS that provides the ability to use Invidious, but as we all know, the public instances are unfortunately struggling quite a bit as of writing.