There’s a fun new way to watch YouTube. It’s channel surfing like a baby boomer on cable TV. This creative idea comes from London-based developer Steven Irby. He just launched a web app called Channel Surfer, which displays interesting YouTube videos in an interface that resembles a retro TV guide.
The app lets you browse a variety of channels focused on a topic and click to tune in as if you were watching live TV.
At launch, you’ll be able to choose from 40 custom-built “channels,” including channels focused on general topics like news, politics, sports, and lifestyle content, as well as music channels and others more tech-focused.
The latter group includes channels such as “AI & ML,” “Code & Dev,” “Space,” “Retro Tech,” “Tech & Gadgets,” and “Gaming.”
As you move between channels, you’ll join the video playing in the middle of the stream. Meanwhile, the guide will notify you of upcoming content and when it will play on all channels. You can also scroll forward to see what shows are scheduled for the next 24 hours.
This makes watching YouTube feel like watching old-fashioned live TV. This experience has proven popular with free streaming services like Plex, Pluto TV, and Tubi, which offer a lineup of live channels playing TV shows and movies. Meanwhile, YouTube itself dominates TV streaming in the US.
Additionally, a small counter at the bottom of the screen tracks how many other people are currently watching YouTube with you.
Irby said he came up with the idea of building a similar experience for streamers, but also for YouTube videos because it’s still difficult to find what you want to watch.
“I built Channel Surfer because I was tired of algorithms and indecision fatigue,” Irby told TechCrunch. “I miss channel surfing and not having to decide what to watch. I just want to sit and listen to what’s on without thinking about what to watch next.”
“My baby boomer mother watches cable TV, and I want the same thing, but I’d like to use my YouTube channel instead. I also find it strangely comforting to know that I’m watching with other people,” he said.
The project is one of many new experiments by Irby, a 40-year-old technology industry veteran who has spent the past decade traveling the world.
“My long and strange journey has given me a lot of creativity. I can’t stand the thought of becoming a Jira ticket monkey anymore,” he said.
The app appears to be a hit, with Irby noting that Channel Surfer’s new website received more than 10,000 views in its first day.
Internally, Channel Surfer is currently a static Next.js site powered by PartyKit and hosted on Cloudflare. The channels and music provided are from a list hand-picked by Ibry himself. GitHub Actions are used to run scripts that update data daily. There is no backend yet.
And although Claude helped with the coding process, Irby says the site is not “atmospheric coding.”
The channel itself is essentially playing a YouTube embed that includes YouTube ads, so the app doesn’t violate our policies. Eventually, Irby said he hopes to bring the app to TV platforms such as Fire TV and Google TV. (It can also be done on mobile devices and tablets, but requires more work.)
Channel Surfer is a free service offering access to 175 YouTube channels and 25 music playlists at launch. However, if you subscribe to Irby’s newsletter, you will be given the option to import your own YouTube subscriptions into the app.
This is a simple and hassle-free process. Drag the “Channel Surfer” bookmarklet to your bookmarks bar, open your YouTube subscription, and click the bookmarklet. The process will start, return to the app, paste the JSON text you copied into the box, and click the “Import” button. This adds a unique channel to Channel Surfer’s existing lineup, with the potential for hundreds more channels to be watched in this format.
The existence of this site is a reminder of the early days of the web, full of fun experimentation and creativity. For Irby, that’s the point.
“I’m obsessed with showing the world that the old web is still alive and well,” he says. “It’s just buried under the mountain on the slope.”
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