A decluttered and organised YouTube client.

Preface

Have you ever find YouTube recommended videos annoying? Too intriguing? But it seems that you cannot escape it because you need information on there?

Yet, often times you came up with ONE thing on your mind and head to YouTube, turns out wasted HOURS on irrelevant stuff?

I was like that. For years I found YouTube is a great way to find useful information, however there are just too many distractions! They really want to keep us stay on the platform in all sorts of ways, encourage us to engage with the videos even if it’s not things that truely matter to us in the first place?

I once heard someone said that the only job of those news outlet is to make other people business your business.

Why do you need to care when there’s someone got robbed in an alley somewhere in Korea, while you’re living in a peaceful town in Iceland anyway? Will it change anything for you or the victim because you read or watched the news? No. But, all these information are forced onto us whether we like it or not. Literally every millisecond there is something intriguing, exciting, disgusting, motivating, or anything you can imagine is happening.

So, how can we stay focused on what we want?

Well, on desktop with a web browser you can use DFTube, a chrome extension to *modify* the way you use YouTube. You can disable the things you don’t want to watch such as related videos and recommended videos.

But on mobile? You have to use it the way YouTube wants you to use it, and you already know what they care about – hook, and profit.

What is ZenTube?

ZenTube is distraction-free YouTube client made for people who want to gain back control over what they consume, therefore better time management and improve productivity.

Screenshots

Main features

• NO suggested or recommended videos
• Show ONLY channels & videos you followed
• Channel categorisation!
• Filter topics from your favourite channels
• Save your videos
• Privacy focused

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Upcoming features

• One-click import YouTube subscriptions
• Tagging system for better videos management

Example usage

Are you a student or a professional on a specific field?

You can follow only the channels that talks about mathematics, science, art, programming, cookery or whatever that you love with this app.

You can either follow just one topic and use this app for this sole purpose, or better yet, utilise this app as your information hub.

Because every time when you open this app, there are only these channels and information you want to know more about, nothing else.

You’re be amazed that this is such a simple motive yet its being taken away from us for such a long time.

Download link

Give this a try, you’ll see what I mean. (App Store)

(One-time payment, no subscriptions!)

Privacy Policy

The app doesn’t collect any of your information or YouTube history at all. All your subscriptions and saved videos are privately stored on your device and your personal iCloud.

Developer note

Unhooking from the internet is hard to achieve. I sincerely hope this app can help you, at least with the YouTube part. Personally, I love and use this app every day, and I haven’t used the YouTube app since. It has saved me hours of doom-scrolling and helped me stay focused.

However, there are downsides to the app, one of which is not being able to “discover” new videos, but that’s also the point, and I’d like to keep it that way. So, whenever I want to find new channels, I just explore on YouTube.com, and when I find one, I add it to ZenTube.

Another issue is having too many “watch later” videos on YouTube. I’m still trying to figure out a way to tackle that behaviour in-app and keep everything organised.

If you have suggestions for ZenTube development, you are more than welcome to leave a comment below. See you on the other side. Stay intentional.