YouTubeRedux for Safari

A Safari Web Extension port of YouTubeRedux — a browser extension that restores YouTube's classic pre-2022 UI with ~60 toggleable tweaks.

What It Does

YouTubeRedux gives you back the YouTube you remember:

• Old logos — choose from 7 classic logo variants (2005, 2013, 2015, 2017, XL, and more)
• Classic icons — restored like/dislike buttons, player controls, and sidebar icons
• Likes bar — brings back the dislike count bar (integrates with Return YouTube Dislike)
• Squared corners — removes the rounded-corner redesign from every element
• Small player mode — set a custom player width
• Old video info layout — rearranges title, channel, and metadata to the classic order
• No Shorts — redirect Shorts to regular videos; hide Shorts from search results
• Disable infinite scroll — replace endless feeds with a "Show More" button
• Classic subscribe button — old-style subscribe button appearance
• Grid density control — set 1–10 items per row on the home feed
• Hide AI panels — removes the AI summary/topic panel
• Old verified badge, darker red, custom scrollbars, cinematic mode control, and ~40 more

All settings are toggle-based and persist across sessions via browser.storage.sync.

What We Built

This project ports the Chrome extension to Safari from scratch, replacing all Chrome-specific APIs with their Safari/WebExtensions equivalents and resolving Safari-specific quirks discovered during the port.

Chrome → Safari API Migration

Every chrome.* call was replaced with the native browser.* WebExtensions API that Safari supports:

Chrome	Safari
chrome.storage.sync	browser.storage.sync
chrome.runtime.getURL()	browser.runtime.getURL()
chrome.runtime.sendMessage()	browser.runtime.sendMessage()
chrome.tabs.create()	browser.tabs.create()
chrome.scripting.executeScript()	browser.scripting.executeScript()

The let browser = chrome \|\| browser shim pattern used by the original was removed entirely — Safari has no chrome global.

Safari-Specific Fixes

Favicon replacement — Safari silently ignores safari-web-extension:// URLs set as favicon hrefs. The fix: embed the favicon as a data:image/x-icon;base64,... URL directly, and trigger a reload with history.replaceState(null, '', location.href) (Safari only re-evaluates favicons on navigation events).

CSS d: path overrides — The Chrome extension overrides SVG icon shapes with d: path(...) in CSS, which Safari doesn't support. The Safari port replaces these with JS: path.setAttribute('d', newPathData) applied via MutationObserver so icons stay replaced as YouTube re-renders them.

Extension asset URLs in CSS — Hardcoded chrome-extension:// scheme strings in styles.css were moved to dynamic injection in initial-setup.js, using browser.runtime.getURL() to build correct safari-web-extension:// URLs at runtime.

Project Structure

YouTubeRedux Safari/
├── YouTubeRedux Safari/              ← macOS host app (required by Apple)
│   └── AppDelegate.swift
└── YouTubeRedux Safari Extension/    ← The web extension
    ├── manifest.json                 ← MV3 manifest
    ├── background.js                 ← Service worker
    ├── initial-setup.js              ← document_start: loads settings, injects CSS
    ├── main.js                       ← document_idle: all DOM manipulation
    ├── styles.css                    ← Static CSS
    ├── popup.html / popup.js         ← Settings UI
    ├── helpers/
    │   ├── logger.js
    │   ├── enums.js
    │   ├── states.js
    │   └── resize.js                 ← Page-context script for player resize
    └── images/                       ← SVGs, PNGs, favicon

Requirements

• macOS 12+ (Monterey or later)
• Safari 16+
• Xcode 14+ (to build from source)

Building & Installing

1. Clone this repo
2. Open YouTubeRedux Safari/YouTubeRedux Safari.xcodeproj in Xcode
3. Build and run the app target (⌘R)
4. In Safari: Settings → Extensions → YouTubeRedux → enable it
5. Grant permission for youtube.com when prompted
6. Visit YouTube — the extension activates automatically

Credits

• Original Chrome extension: omnidevZero/YouTubeRedux
• Safari port by aikios