YouTube Liberation: Anti-Distraction Skin

Chrome extension to liberate you from the infinite distraction cycle of YouTube.
What is YouTube Liberation: Anti-Distraction Skin?
'YouTube Liberation: Anti-Distraction Skin' is a Chrome extension designed to improve the viewing experience on YouTube by eliminating potential distractions. It achieves this by hiding certain elements like recommendations, comments, and extraneous UI elements. Despite this, it doesn't compromise on vital features such as subscriptions, channel pages, playlists, and video stats. The aim of this extension is to give users the power to focus on the content they want to see, without succumbing to the platform's designed distractions.

Extension stats

Users: 804 ▼ -6
Rating: 4.70 (33)
Version: 0.2.0 (Last updated: 2023-05-06)
Creation date: 2020-04-05
Risk impact: Low risk impact
Risk likelihood: Very low risk likelihood
Manifest version: 3
Permissions:
  • storage
Size: 32.83K

Other platforms

Not available on Firefox
Not available on Edge
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Extension summary

Like other social media platforms, YouTube is very good at showing you content that you want to watch but weren't planning to or looking for, making it super easy to get distracted and get sucked into one video after another and suddenly lose an hour of your day. Yet there are so many valuable resources and videos that you can't find elsewhere: tutorials, event coverage, specific creators you subscribe to who you know always publish high-quality content worth watching. For many of us, the value of YouTube makes it worth the sacrifice of even its most distracting possibilities, and it's impossible to just cut away.

What if it didn't have to be this way? What if you could have the good of YouTube, see the content you want to see, without the platform constantly trying to drag your attention through an endless stream of productivity-draining drudgery?

This is the philosophy behind YouTube Liberation. It's time to rise up, lose your chains, and join us as we march our way towards a better YouTube!

YouTube Liberation works by hiding elements that lead you towards new content you don't intend to see, without compromising any core viewing features. These elements include:

  • The entire home page of alg-generated recommendations
  • Video recommendations on watch pages
  • Comments sections on watch pages
  • Extraneous UI elements, replacing the full sidebar with a much more minimal one and removing most topbar buttons

YouTube liberation does not at all compromise:

  • Subscriptions and trending pages
  • Channel pages
See more

User reviews

These summaries are automatically generated weekly using AI based on recent user reviews. Chrome Web Store does not verify user reviews, so some user reviews may be inaccurate, spammy, or outdated.
Pros
  • Helps reduce YouTube viewing time significantly
  • Improves user productivity and mental well-being
  • Cleans up the interface by removing distractions
  • Offers a unique and streamlined viewing experience
  • Essential tool for users seeking to avoid distractions
Cons
  • No dark mode support, with a bright background
  • Sidebar replacement feature is bugged
  • Cannot open transcripts for videos
  • Video time control only works in theater mode
  • Needs a disable/enable button for occasional distractions
Most mentioned
  • Greatly reduces distractions
  • Helps with YouTube addiction
  • Interface feels cleaner and more manageable
  • Has some bugs that affect user experience
  • Aesthetic issues like background color options
Recent reviews
Watch History turned off, Return YouTube Dislike, SponsorBlock for YouTube, DeArrow, Youtube-shorts block, uBlock Origin and this. Finally, YouTube free from rabbit holes and nonsense <3 As of writing this, it appears the sidebar replacement is bugged and won't appear.
by MajinTails, 2024-04-05

It really decimates the site, for a quick no non-sense, blunt and aggressively bleak as bleach and desert approach, like for when studying for exams, disciniplining your habits or lagged sleep, this might be IT. For me, I had to disable EVERYTHING, javascripts, CSS user styles, the cosmetic extensions and general overhaul like improved tube also borked: this app is as impartial as ruthless and a good in desperate time, this is a wartime extension equivalent

Good but no dark mod support, the background is pure white.
by cortes jeremy, 2023-05-01
View all user reviews

Extension safety

Risk impact

YouTube Liberation: Anti-Distraction Skin is relatively safe to use as it requires very minimum permissions.

Risk likelihood

YouTube Liberation: Anti-Distraction Skin has earned a good reputation and can be trusted.

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Promo images

YouTube Liberation: Anti-Distraction Skin small promo image
Small promo image

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