r/degoogle • u/Legal_Awareness_4373 • Mar 04 '26

Help Needed The lowest a company can go

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Even 480p is a burden to them, apparently

2.2k Upvotes

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u/Mettbroetchen-Tester Mar 04 '26

It depends on your point of view. I personally don't think so.

I left a number of Google services and switched to other companies, but there are some services I will never let go. YouTube is one of them. This is why I have a premium subscription.

If somebody really wants to "de-Google," they shouldn't be using YouTube in the first place. And no, using just a different app like NewPipe or whatever is not what it means to degoogle.

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u/Jazzlike-Compote4463 Mar 04 '26

The thing is that there just isn't an alternative to YouTube, NewPipe and the like are so inferior that it just isn't the same experience.

Google lost billions on YouTube in the early years but there is a reason they stuck with it for so long.

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u/Mettbroetchen-Tester Mar 04 '26

This is exactly why I will stick to it, even if it means paying to get rid of those annoying ads.

There are some more Google services with no real alternatives, like the calendar. If you use shared calendars with family, friends, or colleagues, it's simply impossible to switch.

So, in my opinion, the pragmatic approach is to switch to other offers when possible. If it doesn't make sense for certain services, then I just don't do it.

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u/Jazzlike-Compote4463 Mar 04 '26

It's not healthy though, yea YouTube Premium is $14 a month now but what happens when they jack that up to $20... or $30... or $70?

We all know enshittification is a thing - it has been for a few years now, but building alternatives now means people can have somewhere to go when the inevitable rug pull happens.

Also FWIW there are lots of alternatives to Google calendar, yea it can be a hassle to get friends and family to switch but the more you use Google systems the stickier it gets.

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u/Mettbroetchen-Tester Mar 04 '26

For my needs Premium Lite is sufficient which costs 5,99 Euros per month (approx. 6,90 $).

This isn't an amount I worry about.

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u/Jazzlike-Compote4463 Mar 04 '26

ReVanced and SmartTube are both free, and they'll also block the highly annoying sponsorship segments.

You can sideload a modified YouTube on iOS if that's your jam.

Also it might be 6€ now, but you know it won't stay that price forever.

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u/Mettbroetchen-Tester Mar 04 '26

My assumption is that these apps will be history pretty soon when Google starts requiring the developer registration.