There’s a fun new way to watch YouTube: channel surf like a cable TV boomer. This creative idea comes from a developer based in London Stephen Irbywho has just released a web application called Channel Surferwhich presents interesting YouTube videos in a retro TV guide-like interface.
In the app, you can browse through different topic-focused channels and click to tune in as if you were watching live TV.
At launch, there are 40 of these custom “channels” to choose from, including those focused on general topics like news, politics, sports and lifestyle content, as well as a selection of music channels and others with a more tech focus.
The latter group includes channels such as “AI & ML”, “Code & Dev”, “Space”, “Retro Tech”, “Tech & Gadgets” and “Gaming”.
As you move between channels, you join the video playing during the stream. Meanwhile, the guide tells you about upcoming content on all channels and what time of day it will be playing. You can also scroll to see the programming scheduled for the next 24 hours.
This makes watching YouTube a lot like watching old-school live TV — an experience that’s proven popular with free streaming services like Plex, Pluto TV, Tubi and others, which offer lineups of live channels playing TV shows and movies. YouTube itself, meanwhile, dominates TV streaming in the US
Additionally, a small counter at the bottom of the screen keeps track of how many other people are currently watching YouTube with you.
Irby says he had the idea to create a similar experience for streamers, but for YouTube videos, because finding something to watch can still be difficult.
“I built Channel Surfer because I’m tired of algorithms and tired of indecision,” Irby told TechCrunch. “I miss channel surfing and not having to decide what to watch. I just want to sit and tune into what’s on and not think about what to watch next.”
“My mom, who is fast, watches cable. I want the same, but with my YouTube channels. Also, it’s weirdly comforting to know I’m watching with other people,” she said.
The project is one of several new experiments by Irby, a 40-year veteran of the tech industry who has spent the past decade traveling the world.
“I have so much creativity from my long, strange journey. I can’t stand the thought of being a Jira ticket monkey anymore,” he said.
The app seems to be a success, with Irby noting that Channel Surfer’s brand new website saw more than 10,000 views on the first day.
Under the hood, Channel Surfer is, for now, static Next.js website he uses PartyKit and is hosted on Cloudflare. The channels and music it offers are from Ibry’s curated list. GitHub Actions used to run a script that refreshes the data daily. There is no back end yet.
And while Claude assisted in the coding process, the site is not “vibe-coded,” Irby says.
The channels themselves essentially play YouTube embeds, including YouTube ads, so the app shouldn’t violate the policy. Eventually, Irby says he’d love to bring the app to TV platforms, including Fire TV, Google TV and others. (It also works on mobile and tablets, but needs more work.)
At launch, Channel Surfer is a free service that offers access to 175 YouTube channels and 25 music playlists. But if you subscribe to Irby’s circularyou are given the option to import your own YouTube subscriptions into the app.
It’s a quick and dirty process to do it: Drag a “Channel Surfer” bookmark to your bookmarks bar, then open your YouTube subscriptions and click on the bookmark. The process begins, directing you back to the application where you paste the copied JSON text into a box and click an “import” button. This adds your own channels to Channel Surfer’s existing lineup, potentially giving you hundreds of other channels to watch in this format.
The site’s existence harkens back to earlier days of the web, full of fun experiments and creativity. For Irby, that’s the bottom line.
“I’m obsessed with showing the world that the old web is still alive and well,” he says. “It’s buried under a mountain of slope.”
