YouTube has been cracking down on people using ad blockers. Now, a spokesperson says that using ad blockers could lead to “suboptimal viewing.”
It can’t be worse than the experience with ads they provide
suboptimal viewing is already a builtin feature
Well I know for sure my viewing experience will be worse with ads, so “might” is a possible improvement
That’s a risk I’m willing to take.
For iOS users, Firefox Focus still seems unfazed by all of this. Sent a playlist to it from PocketTube today and I didn’t see an ad through several videos, with no delays.
i need to look into these. i’m on iOS but have always just used the main youtube app.
My iOS solution is uninstalling YouTube so the links will open in a default browser instead, setting the default to Firefox Focus, and installing PocketTube, where you have to be logged into YT so it downloads your subscriptions and latest videos. Use it to organize your subscriptions into group playlists, then hit a button in the corner while viewing a list for it to forward the list to FF Focus. The only gripe I have about it is that every time a new video from the playlist loads, you have to toggle fullscreen on again because it’s effectively opening a new page in FF Focus. You can also watch videos directly in PocketTube by tapping an individual video, and also seems to skip ads, but you don’t have subtitles that way.
Afaik this works by itself, but I also have the $1.99 Vinegar extension for Safari installed which may or not contribute to the ad blocking. I’d try it without first to see what happens.
edit: This is also my solution on Android, except I have PocketTube open the list in YT Revanced, where optionally I can cast the list to SmartTube on my FireTV including SponsorBlocks. The only place I’m logged in is PocketTube.
I’ve been finding Brave a better solution.
But then you are using Brave, which is not ideal.
Good to know as a backup. I kinda like having FFF as the default. It’s the only browser I’ve tried on iOS that passes a few security checks as strong protection and doesn’t remember anything when you hit the clear button.
The problem with that is that Brave is just a distasteful option for entirely different reasons.
“That’s a nice YouTube feed, be a real shame if somethin’ were to…happen to it…”
Youtube is already one of the most resource hungry websites in existence for no fucking reason.
I can watch 1h YouTube on my laptop when its fully charged but 4h streaming anime…
If a piracy website builds stuff more efficiently than you are the problem.
Funny, they’re actively making it worse any time I try to lower my shields too. They’ve changed, very recently, from a video hosting platform with ads, to an advertising platform with some minor videos in between.
Do they… do they understand that we are the customers?
You’re only a customer if you pay them. If you don’t, then you’re the product, and they can’t sell your eyeballs to advertisers if you block their ads.
When it comes to Google, even if you pay them you are still the product, YouTube Premium might stop the ads on YouTube but it doesn’t stop the data collection for other Google products and partners.
No, you’re the product. They’re selling your data and viewing time to their customers.
How many millions are you paying them? Because unless you’re paying into the business tier or an SLA, you are not their customer.
I haven’t been to youtube.com or opened the app in ages. I switched to FreeTube and haven’t looked back. That’ll last until they restrict API access, anyway.
YT can rot in Hell for pulling this garbage with its viewers.
