I gave Premium a shot. Then the one time I wanted to use the feature Google said I was paying for - being able to download videos - I found out that it was just a glorified pre-buffer.
Can't view the video outside the youtube app or the website, source video file encrypted ✅️
Can't view the video if you havent connected to the internet in 3 days ✅️
Does less than your average youtube downloader that you can find for free with one search ✅️
Literally just saving Youtube bandwidth because they destroyed every benefit you would get if it was actually reasonable ✅️
Enshittification isnt just limited to free users folks. Slammed that cancellation button right then and there. Good luck earning back my trust, I'm happy to pay if you didnt scream so loudly that even if I paid, you were going to treat me like shit anyways.
I pay for it and I like the perks. You are giving YouTube money, but also the creator of the video. And synchronizes the view with your account. And takes it into account for the dreaded "algorithm" (which I also find useful, plenty of cool channels discovered thanks to it).
Ever go to a video website, click a download button under a video, and NOT have that video in your downloads folder? Literally that. That's what i expect from a download button.
On android the download folder is a mess. I honestly prefer to have the videos in the app. I used newpipe before and it was a bit less convenient (although more flexible).
Never used it on a computer, tho, that would make sense there.
I only use YouTube on PC. I'm kinda old school now though. My phone is pretty much just a phone now. Only app I use is lemmy other than maps and normal stuff. No social media on my phone.
I consider lemmy in different realm of social media. The people here are not at all like the people I meet irl where I live. If I ever met someone from my small town who even knew what lemmy was id shit myself.
I like those perks too, but if I pay more to be able to download videos (which again, I could've used a free tool for) I want to be able to do whatever I want with it. Download means getting a file I can watch using my own video player and store for later even if Youtube dies tomorrow, If I go on holiday without internet, or if my internet goes down for a week. Anything.
If Google is going to be "Uhm aksually, you are technically downloading it, thats why we can advertise it like that", then I'm already downloading literally every video I watch. And thats not the kind of bullshit you give to a paying customer. That is spitting in my face for paying you. Why does a non-Premium user get better service with free third party youtube downloaders?
Yeah, I thought it was a nice compromise. It seemed sensible that if Premium is the 'compliant' response to not wanting ads, the 'compliant' response to using third party tools to download videos was to just be able to do things more easily and with more options through Premium as well. But apparently they wanted to advertise something anyone who's wanted to download a youtube video would not describe as 'downloading', which is easily out competed by free (but at times shady) tools.
Exactly, thinking that is what I was getting pulled me over the edge, I sometimes remember a music video I want to listen to on my phone during my commute and I don't want to spend 30 minutes either getting on my PC to download it with a tool, or using a third party downloader which can at times be shady. So upgrading that to a single click in the app seemed like a great deal. Crushingly disappointed when I found out how it actually was. Turns out the real answer was NewPipe, which I don't even have to pay for.