There absolutely is something an app can do better than a website in a browser. That being tracking you.
But yeah, Youtube in a firefox-based browser with uBlock Origin and Sponsor Block is just so much better than the official app. Sadly Google has become so aggressive with blocking users using a VPN that I cannot use Newpipe or Freetube anymore :(
on graphene often apps will say they don’t work because there is no playservices but then they work just finw bwcause of workarounds the os has in place, and i have mullvad on which has content blockers on the dns level if ypu activate them.
you can also fake giving them all permissions
on this setup mobile is actually more private i think, because of sandboxing, there is no cookies or refs but also not nealy as many fingerprinting markers that make you look super unique
According to the newest (2025-08-12) privacytests.org test it is pretty good but for desktop Mullvad Browser and Tor Browser are best.
As for Android: Tor Browser and Firefox Focus were best at that time though neither block advertisements. Firefox Focus does not support installing add-ons and it is highly recommended not to install one in Tor Browser as it will make you stand out from the rest of its users.
Personally I can recommend Ironfox to you. It is the continuation of DivestOS’ Mull Browser (not Mullvad). It is hardened Firefox and asks you on first launch if you would like to install uBlock Origin. I presume most people tab on ‚yes‘, so not installing it would actually make you stand out
I can’t even access the mullvad website or DNS anymore. I’m assuming they haven’t shut down and it’s my isp blocking it (got switched from talktalk to virgin media) and the opera vpn doesn’t work anymore either (I just use it when I need to get around geoblocks) but I don’t know if that’s on their end or mine.
For some reason I’m blocked by reddit on opera on both desktop and mobile, but I can view it on ddg. There’s definitely something weird about opera.
I have librewolf with ublock origin on desktop. I recently installed ddg desktop as well.
There absolutely is something an app can do better than a website in a browser. That being tracking you. But yeah, Youtube in a firefox-based browser with uBlock Origin and Sponsor Block is just so much better than the official app. Sadly Google has become so aggressive with blocking users using a VPN that I cannot use Newpipe or Freetube anymore :(
Ive been having a lot of issues with grayjay too.
Same with PipePipe. Whatever changes Alphabet/Google/Youtube are making are clearly meant to fuck with FOSS apps.
“Darn, I can’t watch youtube without ads.”
google: here it comes!! He’s openi-
“…I’m gonna read a book.”
google: FFFFFFWHAT!?
I use morphe, its a modded version of the actual YouTube app.
on graphene often apps will say they don’t work because there is no playservices but then they work just finw bwcause of workarounds the os has in place, and i have mullvad on which has content blockers on the dns level if ypu activate them.
you can also fake giving them all permissions
on this setup mobile is actually more private i think, because of sandboxing, there is no cookies or refs but also not nealy as many fingerprinting markers that make you look super unique
I’m putting my faith in the DDG tracker blocker feature, but tbh I have no idea if it actually works or not.
According to the newest (2025-08-12) privacytests.org test it is pretty good but for desktop Mullvad Browser and Tor Browser are best.
As for Android: Tor Browser and Firefox Focus were best at that time though neither block advertisements. Firefox Focus does not support installing add-ons and it is highly recommended not to install one in Tor Browser as it will make you stand out from the rest of its users.
Personally I can recommend Ironfox to you. It is the continuation of DivestOS’ Mull Browser (not Mullvad). It is hardened Firefox and asks you on first launch if you would like to install uBlock Origin. I presume most people tab on ‚yes‘, so not installing it would actually make you stand out
I can’t even access the mullvad website or DNS anymore. I’m assuming they haven’t shut down and it’s my isp blocking it (got switched from talktalk to virgin media) and the opera vpn doesn’t work anymore either (I just use it when I need to get around geoblocks) but I don’t know if that’s on their end or mine.
For some reason I’m blocked by reddit on opera on both desktop and mobile, but I can view it on ddg. There’s definitely something weird about opera.
I have librewolf with ublock origin on desktop. I recently installed ddg desktop as well.