Google could kill YouTube Vanced for good::The company is exploring an integrity API that could lock down WebViews with DRM
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Wow, this article is just like 100% wrong. I’m surprised no one has mentioned this yet.
To get why this could be a problem for YouTube Vanced’s successors, we need to understand how they work. Rather than modding the YouTube app itself, Vanced apps are essentially tweaked and modded browsers that display videos via a WebView that shows YouTube, adding extra features to the experience like adblock and other YouTube Premium perks. If YouTube was able to check which apps or devices are trying to access its servers before displaying content, this would be an easy route to stop Vanced successors from working.
The YouTube-app, and Revanced in turn, does not utilize a WebView to display video. They are most certainly not ‘modded browsers’.
Seriously, who wrote this shit? An AI? It’s baffling.
I’m surprised no one had mentioned this yet
It’s because there’s an annoying trend of everyone reading the headline and not the article. Drives me bonkers
Headline: “THING IS HAPPENING”
Body: “Here’s 1000 words unrelated to the headline. Here’s some ads. Here’s interviews with three people saying nothing of interest. Here’s the thing you clicked under the headline for and it adds a bit of nuance to the headline along with a bunch of waffling and uncertainty. Here’s a pointless anecdote. More ads! Here’s a recipe for chicken wings and a bunch of pictures of celebrities. Oops! Article ended a full screen ago. Nothing down here but clickbait and more ads.”
Gee, I wonder why people just take the headline at face value.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Manuel Vonau • Senior Google Editor
(2251 Articles Published)
Manuel Vonau
From his bio on that site (https://www.androidpolice.com/author/manuel-vonau/):
Manuel studied Media and Culture studies in Düsseldorf, finishing his university career with a master’s thesis titled “The Aesthetics of Tech YouTube Channels: Production of Proximity and Authenticity.” His background gives him a unique perspective on the ever-evolving world of technology and its implications on society. He isn’t shy to dig into technical backgrounds and the nitty-gritty developer details, either.
So he’s a marketing guy with possibly zero tech background beyond watching YouTube videos, who isn’t afraid to discuss “nitty-gritty developer details” despite apparently not actually understanding them.
Given that Revanced patches the YouTube app, Monsieur Vonau is most certainly wrong.
No matter what, people will always find a way to mod the apps they really want to have free.
There’s definitely a danger if attestation becomes widespread enough that they can require it.
Not a danger of being unable to mod the apps, but they will be able to restrict access to their servers to the official unmodified app, when it’s running on specific trusted operating systems.
The amount of copium I see in these comments is staggering. Google owns the Youtube app, they own the Youtube servers, they even own the damn operating system you’re running it on, and they’re one of the richest companies in history. Do you REALLY think they couldn’t shut down ReVanced if they wanted to? Are you really that naive?
The moment they decide to put even a small amount of effort towards shutting down ReVanced or the others, they’re as good as dead.
They’ve already tried to kill it like a year or two ago with their last major API changes. This is just another attempt at it.
Google may be wealthy, they may be in control. However, they’re still limited by how the technology fundamentally works. You can only secure something so much before you inadvertently damage your own product’s functionality by restricting its access too aggressively.
Another thing to remember, YouTube is used by literal billions of people across the entire planet from virtually every notable OS capable of doing so. Locking it down so that only one type of app and web browser can access it would cause them to lose millions of eyeballs and ears, i.e. hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue over time. It’d have the exact opposite effect of what they’re trying to do (increase ad profits).
The effort is so small that they decide not to?
Yes you know your stuff
The moment they decide to put even a small amount of effort towards shutting down ReVanced or the others, they’re as good as dead.
Possible. Now what it is missing is the part that should convince the ReVanced user to accept the new situation (they must bear the Ads) instead of stopping to use the service. Remember, Google if fighting against people that are already taking active actions against them, not the Average Joe user.
And in all this, Google cannot risk to put too many hops in the path of the Average Joe users as there is the risk that the common user consider that, all in all, the service no more worth the headache to use it.
deleted by creator
Surely as long as there’s a way to access YouTube on devices without attestation, this won’t kill anything.
Indeed. And if they decide to brick or degrade all legacy apps, people will just transcode and torrent.
Information wants to be free, and millions of people have the skills to make it happen.
Android WebView Media Integrity API
Is the WebView based on Chromium? If they add this WebView, how far off would it be from being added to Chromium?
Can someone confirm whether YouTube ReVanced really uses WebView?
I don’t think it matters. ReVanced patches original YouTube so it will use whatever YouTube is using. Even if current YouTube app doesn’t use WebView that’s nothing stopping them from adding it in the future.
If I’m reading article right, Google supposedly “discontinued” the attestation technology in Chrome, because of the shit storm, but looks like they are thinking of adding it to Android and use it to verify the devices and applications are genuine. The YouTube server for example might refuse to serve the video if the application is not genuine.
If they are testing application genuinity im more concerned they might break all the google services hacks etc used by graphene os.
I mean they successfully destroyed any possibility to use banking apps in custom roms like LineageOS, with their new Play Integrity https://developer.android.com/google/play/integrity
Maybe there already is or there will be some circumvention, but when i had to do it there was none.
I mean they successfully destroyed any possibility to use banking apps in custom roms like LineageOS, with their new Play Integrity
This is a consequence of the security standards banks (and credit card companies) need to follow, not Google doing.
Banking apps work fine on graphene or at least mine does.
Talk to your bank and demand them to disable SafetyNet. You own your phone and by doing this they are trying to protect you from yourself.
My bank app works I think one credit card app displayed warning that my phone is rooted but still let me use it. Your banking app should not block you, but it can warn you if they less feel better.
Yeah me and the 50 nerds as customers won’t change a thing
If you don’t contact them and continue to use the back there is zero motivation for them to change anything.
I hear this pathetic argument over and over again. It is primarily used in politics. “my senator/representative is republican, he won’t listen” maybe he won’t but the others that already agree with you, don’t require convincing, your congressman does though so that’s why you need to have your opinion heard.
Unlike with politician, a bank is much easier to change for an individual. You can send email to them, threatening to change and if they refuse, you follow on it (worst case you go to bank that doesn’t do this). You would be surprised how effective this might be when it is connected in any way to their revenue. In most cases the management might not even be aware of the issue and devs simply enabled it because they were told the app needs to be secure, and checking phone integrity sounds like a secure thing to do.
What major change did you accomplish at big companies or political?
