There is a new extension for Safari that aims to help clean up the Youtube viewing experience within Safari, this extension is called Vinegar.
YouTube5 was a Safari extension back when Flash was still a thing and hated by everyone. It replaced the YouTube player (written in Flash) with an HTML
<video>tag.
And now the YouTube player situation has gotten bad enough that we need another extension to fix it. That’s where Vinegar comes in. Vinegar also replaces the YouTube player (written in who-knows-what) with a minimal HTML<video>tag.
The extension is available for $1.99 via the Apple App store and even with the shortlist of features as shown below, I think that $1.99 is well worth it to help with the Youtube experience.
Features
- The removal of in-video ads.
- Prevent YouTube from tracking your play/pause/seek activities.
- Restore picture-in-picture functionality.
- The videos don’t stop playing if you switch to another browser tab.
- You can choose the audio-only stream to keep the music playing when Safari is in the background.
Vinegar works on Youtube videos that have been embedded on to other sites as well! The developer stated that they would consider adding support for other video sites in the future.