Youlag

Modernize FreshRSS for viewing YouTube and articles

About

Youlag is an extension for FreshRSS, allowing you to browse YouTube and article RSS feeds through a modernized design that incorporates quality-of-life features.

It is designed for a distraction-free experience, for people who want to be intentional about their viewing habits.

Why?

Subscribe to creators via RSS without a Google account, stay free of algorithms, and access your subscriptions from any device. Youlag can also be used just for article reading.

Table of Content

• Features
• Install
• Update
• Additional Resources
• Contribution
• Attributions

Features

• 📺 Videos & Articles
  • Browse YouTube subscriptions through a video-tailored inferface
  • Miniplayer: keep video in corner while reading articles
  • Video chapters navigation
  • Replace clickbait thumbnails with screen captures
  • Modernized article viewing experience
• ⚙️ Customization
  • Block YouTube shorts
  • Apply video mode layout to chosen categories
  • Switch between YouTube and Invidious playback sources
  • Hide video-description intros with links to avoid sponsored content
• 🖥️ Desktop & Mobile
  • Mobile: Swipe down in video mode to activate miniplayer
  • Mobile: Swipe to open/close sidebar
  • Use Esc key or the browser's Back navigation to exit videos and articles
• 📰 FreshRSS features
  • Subscribe to YouTube creators without needing an account
  • Manage article and video RSS feeds

Install

Before installing Youlag, please make sure to update FreshRSS to 1.28.0 or higher.

1. Download the latest release here.

2. Unzip the file and you'll find a folder named xExtension-Youlag.

3. Move the xExtension-Youlag folder into your FreshRSS installation: freshrss/extensions/.

4. In FreshRSS, go to Settings → Extensions and enable the Youlag extension.

   • Click the gear (⚙️) icon to explore the available settings.

Update

1. Delete the old version of Youlag: freshrss/extensions/xExtension-Youlag.

2. Repeat the same steps from the "Install" instructions.

Additional resources

• Video Background Play Fix
  • Enables background playback of YouTube videos in Firefox-based browsers on Android devices.
• Invidious
  • An open source alternative front-end to YouTube.

Contribution

1. Fork the dev branch.
2. Install dependencies: npm i.
3. Run npm run watch to compile files to /static.
   1. For local development, see .env.example to learn how you can sync your changes directly to FreshRSS' extensions folder.
4. Run npm run build to generate a production build to /dist.

Attributions

• Integration: Korbak/freshrss-invidious, ajayyy/DeArrow
• Icons used/remixed: SVG Repo, krystonschwarze, phosphor, Solar Icons, Dazzle UI, n3r4zzurr0/svg-spinners.
• Tools: SVGOptimizer.

License

GNU General Public License v3.0