There’s a Better Way to Watch YouTube on IPhone (Without the Algorithm and Short Videos)
YouTube is a mess right now. It’s nowhere near as bad as Instagram or TikTok in this regard, but it’s still easy to lose hours scrolling through videos and short videos in the recommendations feed. Sooner or later, the algorithm will find you, no matter how hard you try. But there is an alternative. A smarter way to watch YouTube videos you actually like without falling into the black hole of recommended content.
The answer you’ve been looking for is a third-party “Watch Later” app like Play . Play isn’t a full-featured YouTube client (Google has tried to reduce all that functionality), but that’s actually a good thing. It lets you find and sort videos you’re actually interested in, without any algorithmic interference. No comments, no feed, and yes, there’s an option to turn off short videos.
Collect all your YouTube videos with the Play app
The Play app helps you create your own Watch Later playlist that is not tied to YouTube. There is no need to log in to YouTube. You can save videos with multiple tags or in different folders. The idea is to create a queue of interesting YouTube videos that you can watch in your free time and with interest.
The Play app is supported on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. There’s also an Apple TV app to view all your saved videos. The Play app has a built-in extension that lets you easily add any YouTube video. You can also simply paste a video link to add it to the Play app.
When you add a video to Play, you can also tag it so that all your viewing sessions in Taskmaster stay organized (as they should be).
Saved videos will appear in the New folder. Tap on a video to open a detailed view where you can see a description, transcript, and other information. There’s also an option to start playing the video, so you don’t have to use the YouTube app to view your saved content.
And yes, you can also shoot videos in full screen. If you have a YouTube Premium subscription, you can also connect your account to Play to get rid of ads and enable picture-in-picture mode. To do this, go to Settings > Video Player > Connect YouTube Account .
And here it is. A simpler, more relaxed YouTube experience, without the short videos and algorithmic feed.
Play Premium allows you to subscribe in the app
The basic version of the Play app costs just $3 and can be a great way to find YouTube videos online and save them for later viewing (like on an Apple TV). But a Play Premium subscription ($20 per year) goes even further, letting you subscribe to your favorite channels right within the app.
There is a dedicated Inbox for channels where you can see all the new videos from channels you are subscribed to. You can subscribe to channels by searching or importing your entire subscription feed using Google Streamer . There is also an option to automatically add all videos from a channel to your Later list, although this may be too extreme for most channels – I wouldn’t recommend it. Play Premium users can also turn off short videos in Inbox channels.
Alternatively, you can also try Unwatched for YouTube , a free, open-source app for watching YouTube videos. The app is much simpler, but the interface is quite cluttered. It’s not as polished or smooth as the Play app. However, Unwatched also lets you subscribe to YouTube channels and create your own video queue to watch outside the YouTube app, all for free. And if you’re on Android, try the NewPipe app .
Update 08/08/2025 11:02: A previous version of this article stated that Play can disable ads without a YouTube Premium subscription. This has been corrected.