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Invidious: an alternative front-end that is open-source and privacy-respecting. Here are a list of open instances. If you are reasonably familiar with docker/self-hosting you can also host it yourself, but be aware it’s somewhat resource- and maintenance-heavy.
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yt-dlp: this is a nice command-line program that allows you to download YouTube videos by link; also works with Peertube links. For Windows/Mac users apparently the program is available as well, but please follow their instructions. If you also have mpv installed, you can call
mpv <http://youtube.link>
to directly stream a video. -
NewPipe: this app on F-droid.org allows you to watch YouTube videos (and Soundcloud/Bandcamp but somewhat glitchy) with an experience very much akin to the YouTube app itself.
Please feel free to share other alternatives.
There is also Piped, which is like Invidious. On Android you can use LibreTube which uses Piped as its backend, so you never connect directly to YouTube.