About Improve YouTube!
Improve YouTube!, also called ImprovedTube, is a volunteer project run by a group called code-charity, which says it has been making YouTube extensions since 2012. It is free, the code is public on GitHub and its Chrome listing is Featured. Think of it as a very large settings page for YouTube.
The options cover playback, layout and content. You can fix the playback speed, lock video quality, disable autoplay and up-next, auto-pause when you leave the tab, and use auto picture-in-picture. For layout, it can hide distractions, resize the player, show the description and transcript and set sidebar behaviour. It also adds keyboard shortcuts and video filters. It runs locally, and its privacy policy says it does not log what you watch, though the Chrome version counts feature use anonymously with Google Analytics.
There are a few things to know. The code is public but sits under a custom licence that mixes AGPL for contributions with the project's own terms, so we do not count it as standard open source. The large option list takes time to explore. It suits people who like to tweak, and it is the best free alternative to Enhancer for YouTube.
Pros and cons
- Free, with a very long list of options
- Code is public on GitHub and the project takes volunteers
- Narrow permissions: YouTube pages and local storage
- Listed in Chrome, Firefox and Edge
- Custom licence rather than a standard open-source one
- Interface has so many options it can overwhelm
- Chrome version counts feature use with Google Analytics
Permissions
It requests storage, a context menu entry and access to youtube.com so it can change playback and the page layout. On Chrome it lists no access to other sites.
