Launch: Vinegar
Remember YouTube5? And a Dinosaur remembers. 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.
Vinegar is commonly used as a household Tube cleaner.
The benefits include:
- 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 embedded YouTube videos on other websites, too. I will consider adding support for other video sites in the future.
Vinegar Pricing
Vinegar is available for $1.99 on the App Store, with no in-app purchases, no ads, and no tracking. It’s a universal purchase so you only have to buy it once to use it on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. I hope you find it useful.
Vinegar Privacy Policy
Vinegar does not collect, store, or transmit any personal information.
Vinegar Support
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me via email or Mastodon. I read all my emails and Mastodon mentions, but sometimes I’m too socially awkward to reply. Sorry about that in advance.