Youtube desktop mode on mobile devices

So youtube started ignoring “request desktop site” requests from mobile browsers again, even from tablets.

This is frustrating for a few reasons, namely because extensions tend to work best in the desktop view, and also because youtube disables certain features (transcripts, notification list) in the mobile view.

I like to avoid useragent spoofing whenever possible as it’s helping chrome’s dominance over the web

If anyone else is looking for a workaround, add &app=desktop to the URL

Anyway, hope this helps someone!

8 points · 5 comments · view on lemmy.world

5 Comments

Peffse@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 36d (3 replies)

There is also a persist flag you can use so that your saved cookies will always take you to the respective version.

Switch to mobile:

https://m.youtube.com/?persist_app=1&app=m

Switch to desktop:

https://www.youtube.com/?persist_app=1&app=desktop

Arcane2077@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 36d

That’s sick, thanks for sharing. As the other person said, it doesn’t seem to work on iOS

davel@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 36d (1 reply)

On what browsers have had success with this recently? I tried a few iOS browsers just now, and it didn’t work.

Peffse@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 36d

I've tested on both Chromium and Firefox based browsers. Both saved the cookie preference and redirected me to the mobile/desktop version based on the persistence flag.

davel@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 36d

Wow, I usually suggest iOS app Desktop Browser for this kind of thing, but it no longer succeeds in the case of www.youtube.com, and I have no idea why.