YouTube Zen

A minimalist, installable web app to watch YouTube videos without recommendations, comments, or promotions. Just a pure video-viewing experience.

• No API keys, no Google account, no login — ever
• Not an extension, so you can't accidentally disable it
• Not a native app with feeds, so there's nothing to doomscroll
• Treats Shorts links like normal videos

How it works

Everything runs in your browser:

• Search uses public, keyless Invidious and Piped instances (with automatic failover)
• Video details for pasted URLs come from Invidious or YouTube's official oEmbed endpoint
• Playback uses the privacy-friendly youtube-nocookie.com embed

The whole backend from the old desktop version is now ~200 lines of TypeScript in frontend/src/lib/youtube.ts.

Install on Android

1. Open the hosted URL in Chrome on your phone
2. Tap the menu (⋮) → Add to Home screen / Install app
3. Launch it like any other app — fullscreen, own icon, no browser UI

Works on desktop browsers too (install prompt in Chrome/Edge address bar).

Development

Prerequisites: Node.js 16+ (npm)

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev        # dev server with hot reload

To test on your phone during development:

npm run dev -- --host   # then open http://<your-lan-ip>:5173 on the phone

Build & Host

cd frontend
npm run build      # static output in dist/

GitHub Pages (automatic): every push to main builds and deploys via the GitHub Action in .github/workflows/deploy.yml, live at https://tanishkbansode.github.io/YouTubeZen/.

All PWA paths are relative, so dist/ also works on any other static host (Netlify, Cloudflare Pages) without config.

Usage

Searching

Enter a search term, or paste any YouTube URL format:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
• https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID
• https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID
• https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID

Keyboard Shortcuts / Gestures

• Escape - Close video player or settings modal
• Enter - Submit search
• Click the title to reload the app

Troubleshooting

"No videos found" / search errors Public Invidious/Piped instances occasionally go down or rate-limit. The app tries several automatically; if all fail, try again later or edit the instance lists at the top of frontend/src/lib/youtube.ts.

Video won't play Some videos disable embedding; open them directly on YouTube instead.

Privacy & Security

• No accounts, no tokens, no tracking — nothing is stored except the PWA cache
• Requests go only to the Invidious/Piped instances listed in youtube.ts and to YouTube's oEmbed/embed endpoints

Disclaimer

Not made by or affiliated with Google/YouTube. Just an app for people who want YouTube without getting distracted.

License

MIT License.