A new exploit involving the Nintendo Switch’s browser applet allows users to access YouTube, albeit with some caveats.
Using the social media linking page in user settings, Switch owners are able to access YouTube videos. However, this only works through Facebook, as, even with a DNS trick or proxy, the console crashes when attempting to play a video on YouTube.
There’s no concrete info on why this is the case, but the most likely culprit is the console’s lack of support for the video codecs the desktop version of YouTube uses.
If you want to try this for yourself, follow these ten easy* steps at your own risk:
- Go to User Settings, then go to social media posting settings.
- Click the link to link your console to Facebook.
- Instead of signing in there, click on the Facebook logo to go to the normal sign-in page.
- Sign in.
- Once on your wall, find a YouTube video
- Don’t click the link to the video, this will bring you to YouTube, which the browser blocks
- Click the thumbnail to bring up an embed
- Keep pausing and unpausing the video until it begins to load using the Switch’s built-in media player
- If the console crashes, reboot and try again if you want. However, using this, it should work
- There you go! You’ve now wasted 15 minutes trying to watch a video you can watch in seconds on your phone.
*= Convoluted, only to do if you’re very desperate/want to check your Facebook on your expensive new console
This isn’t the only oddity with the Nintendo Switch’s built-in browser applet, as the console itself has already been exploited using the applet.