Better YouTube

An open-source YouTube Desktop Client built with Electron, TypeScript, and Vite. Features a modular plugin system for customizing your YouTube experience.

Features

• 🎥 Native YouTube experience in a desktop app
• 🔌 Modular plugin system
• 🛡️ Built-in ad blocker
• ⚙️ React-based settings window
• 🎨 Customizable via plugins

Plugins

Included Plugins

1. AdBlocker - Blocks ads at the network level using filter lists
2. SponsorBlock - Automatically skips sponsored segments
3. Return YouTube Dislike - Shows dislike counts using the RYD API
4. Unhook / UI Cleaner - Hide Shorts, Comments, Recommendations
5. Discord RPC - Show "Watching [Video]" on Discord

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• npm or yarn

Setup

1. Install dependencies:

npm install

2. Build the project:

npm run build

3. Run in development mode:

npm run electron:dev

Project Structure

better-youtube/
├── src/
│   ├── main/           # Electron main process
│   │   ├── index.ts    # Main window setup
│   │   ├── plugins.ts  # Plugin loader
│   │   └── discord-rpc.ts
│   ├── preload/        # Preload scripts
│   ├── plugins/        # Default plugins
│   │   ├── sponsorblock/
│   │   ├── return-dislike/
│   │   ├── unhook/
│   │   └── volume-booster/
│   └── settings/       # React settings UI
├── dist/               # Build output
└── package.json

Building

npm run build
npm run electron:build

Plugin Development

Plugins are stored in %APPDATA%/better-youtube/plugins/ (or equivalent on macOS/Linux).

Each plugin directory should contain:

• renderer.js - Code injected into the YouTube page
• preload.js (optional) - IPC communication

Example Plugin

// plugins/my-plugin/renderer.js
(function() {
  'use strict';
  
  // Your plugin code here
  console.log('My plugin loaded!');
})();

Configuration

Plugin settings are stored using electron-store in the app's user data directory.

Discord RPC Setup

1. Create a Discord application at https://discord.com/developers/applications
2. Get your Client ID
3. Update src/main/discord-rpc.ts with your Client ID

License

MIT