Today was huge. I’ve separated myself enough from Google with Proton applications/services combined with other more privacy focused software and hardware to be able to completely delete my Google account.
It feels great to FINALLY be free of them. I’ve had an account there for decades.
You can go to your Google settings, do a Google takeout with Youtube and YouTube Music, which lets you export a file with all your subscriptions. This file gets sent to your Gmail inbox. Invidious, Newpipe, Piped, etc., they all support this file format. Import and enjoy. Hope that frees you from Youtube.
I moved to my own instance of Piped and haven’t looked back. Interestingly, I find that the whole platform have become less addicting as a result.
Yep I did the same thing, but running a private Invidious instance (frontend for YouTube) with only subscribed to the channels I really want to watch. Result is no more infinite rabbit hole of recommended videos, just the ones I really want to watch.