Show HN: I built a cleaner YouTube – no ads, sponsors, or doomscrolling

[Nina_F]

Hi HN!

I built SkipCut

it’s like an ad-free, distraction-free YouTube with useful extras: background play, SponsorBlock, dark mode, playlist support, local history, download/share buttons… and it works on any device. No install. No login.

Here’s the best part: It works just by replacing "youtube" with "skipcut" in the video link. You skip all the boring stuff — ads, sponsors, intros, silence, filler and just watch what matters.

Why it’s different: No comments. No suggested videos. No clickbait.

I made this for my kid, I create a playlist and just send a SkipCut link like: https://skipcut.com?list=xyz123 It plays only those videos and stops the doomscrolling.

Just replace youtube with skipcut in the URL of any video Example: https://www.skipcut.com/watch?v=abc123

No signup required

Would love your feedback, ideas, and bug reports!

Try it: https://skipcut.com

[Leftium]

I also made an alternate YouTube player with a different feature set (for sharing/reviewing segments of dance videos)

- https://youloop.leftium.com

- https://github.com/Leftium/youloop

Your app gave me some ideas. Here are some ideas your app might use:

- Load video by detecting YouTube ID/URL in clipboard

- Hide YouTube "branding" in paused/thumbnail state. (Mostly to hide "More videos" UI)

- (A-B) looping

- Playback speed controls

- Mute

[Nina_F]

Most people won’t allow clipboard access, that’s why I never added the paste button.

I’m already planning to use a different player to remove YouTube branding, playback speed controls, and other features.

Thanks for the feedback.

[RobotCaleb]

Please keep your paws out of my clipboard

[Leftium]

A feature I would love to see in a YouTube player: better transcript view

- Single click to open transcript

- Transcript not crammed into tiny window in corner

- Often I use the transcript as a navigation tool when (re)viewing a long video. Especially when I want to share a specific part of a video.

---

And I found a bug in SkipCut when clicking a FAQ:

- If the video was started (then paused) opening a FAQ starts the video (audio).

- Possibly related? often the browser jumps down the page, so the FAQ I clicked is not visible unless I scroll back up. (Or maybe it is scrolling the FAQ to near the top of the viewport? It's disorienting. If intentional, a smooth scroll animation may help.)

[djyde]

Many language learning extension have this feature. They provide a transcript view beside the player.

[Nina_F]

Thanks for the feedback. I will update it soon.

[ibdf]

This looks really nice, but... you went so far to remove all the annoying things just to add some annoying notifications... you get about 3 of them per video loaded.

[Nina_F]

Which notifications? Related Sponsorblock?? I will add toggle to off them in Sponsorblock setting soon.

[CHB0403085482]

Testing: https://www.skipcut.com/watch?v=eMP1JoYVnmw

[Hiikyu]

just tried it out with replacing the youtube.com in url to skipcut.com and it seems like there is a bug where the video doesn't show

keep up the great work!

[Nina_F]

thanks for the feedback.

[gigatexal]

How does it work?

[Nina_F]

It uses an embed player, like how IMDb or any website uses it. When I added YouTube videos to my website, I observed that ads never show there, so I made it and added a sponsor block too. Now, I can watch videos on any device or share links without anyone installing anything.

[Leftium]

I also noticed embedded YouTube videos don't seem to play ads. I am planning to make a beat-aware YouTube player, so I was wondering how ads would affect the timing...

[netsharc]

Some videos don't allow embedding though, for example the Formula 1 channel disallow it for seemingly all their videos: https://skipcut.com/watch?v=QGTErgNcpDM

[Nina_F]

Yes. Some videos are not allowed by channel owners.

[ponta17]

I just tried it out. This is awesome!

[Nina_F]

keep sharing.