Technology

I think ublock origin bypasses youtubes ad detection

I used to pay for premium just because it was the simplest way to watch ad free on my phone (IOS so Vanced was not an option), and being able to download videos to watch later on a flight was nice.

But then they wouldn’t let you do Picture in Picture from the app, which, like, fine. Annoying but I’ll just play it in the background and just listen to the audio.

But then they started forcing the tiktok clone onto the home page and subscriptions page. I really do not like the dopamine disinformation vortex. So I deleted the app and just started watching them through the website, which actually enabled Picture in Picture and let me hide the shorts shelf (for 30 days before I have to click the X again.)

Now I’ve just stopped paying for it and just watch YouTube in the Firefox Focus IOS browser which completely blocks YouTube ads in my experience. It won’t let me do Picture in Picture or play audio in the background on their website, but I’ve noticed embedded YouTube videos on other websites will.

So now I’m looking in to using other front ends so I can have complete normal functionality without having to watch adds or pay them money and have their stupid tik tok clone shoved down my throat.

Good job Google, you managed to completely alienate someone who was paying you cash. Now I’m the definition of a free rider on your service.

I could live with an ad before every video

I can't live with that. Often I don't even know if I actually want to watch the video or not, and if I have to sit through three minutes of ads, only to close the video five seconds after the ad because it's not what I expected... yuck. Preroll ads are often a deal breaker for me unless it's content that I'm very familiar with.

Mid-roll ads I'm OK with - by then I've already decided the content is worth watching.

I don't think I'm alone and YouTube seems to be very aware of this issue. They are selective about which videos have a pre-roll ad.

This thread is in c/technology, but I swear these are some of the least tech literate comments I've seen. Stop using Chrome, yesterday. Use Firefox, use ublock origin. On Android use Revanced. I never see an ad on my PC or phone using YouTube, including ads in the video by the content creators (sponsorblock is built into Revanced and can by toggled).

Add in sponsors that some ass holes throw 2-3 in a video (FU LTT) and I don't know how people watch YouTube with ads. It sucks so bad.

I do pay for premium, but use smart tube on my android tv box and it feels so good when it rolls right past them.

I hate how this trend of "I'll make my service shit so you'll pay more for the not as shit version" seems to work out for these companies

It sucks. What sucks even more for me is that, I understood the fact that a platform like YouTube costs an unimaginable amount. I get that. And I wanted to pay. As a matter of fact, I did pay, happily so, for quite while. For YouTube Prenium Lite. Until a week ago I think, where I got this wonderful email from Google titled: Kindly go fuck yourself... or at least that's how I read it... telling me that YouTube Prenium Lite was going the way of the Google graveyard. Because of course it did. And now, it was paying for full Prenium or nothing.

So I stopped paying. I'm not paying 13 bucks a month for no ads. Especially if you're basically strong arming me in doing so, I'll do without YouTube.

Because hey, I tried YouTube Music. It's actually quite good in many aspects (horrendously flawed in many others too, of course, but that's most Music Streaming services) but you know what? I know it's been years, but I'm still not over Google Play Music and how they killed that off for what was an inferior product back then. Why the fuck would I invest my time and money in a Google product, nowadays? I'm sorry if you reading this were one of these people, but it's like... to the people who were paying for Stadia and were shocked to learn that the service was shutting down... I'm sorry, but what the fuck is wrong with you? It was bound to happen, from the moment it was announced, the entire internet started joking about the fact that this thing will be dead in two years!

I refuse to pay for a Google product nowadays. It's like paying for a live service game at release, it's rolling the dice and betting against the colossal odds that this thing will be dead in two years. So, unless it's a Pixel, so I can slap something else than stock Android, Google can suck it. They won't get a cent from me.

It's not like I paid for Prenium Lite because I loved YouTube. Hell, YouTube stopped being a good product a long time ago, I was paying for the content I was watching. Gotta support creators, you know? And also, because I watched a lot of YouTube on my TV, and you can't slap Ublock on that. It was a reasonable enough price. But now? Fuck YouTube, I'm done with this. I've been hating this platform more and more for a while now, the algorithm is awful, it keeps recommanding me stuff I don't want (why the hell does YouTube insist and recommanding me far right content, jesus christ, stop!). And even without ads, you still get them because monetization is so damn inconsistent creators can only depend on sponsors, I could go on and on.

So now, it's NewPipe on mobile, Piped on desktop and I guess I'll just find something better to watch on TV. I'm paying for Nebula, it's cheap, doesn't have even a third of the people who I watched on YouTube, but at least it's creator centric and it's got a lot of good, interesting stuff on it. I've been watching lots of Twitch lately, and while yes, I agree, fuck Amazon, at least I can just pay for the people who I watch most to get no ads, it's a reasonable price, support them and Twitch ads are not nerely as horrendous YouTube's are in terms of frequency. So, yeah. I don't miss it.

Consider Piped, Invidious, etc. Yes you can't log in, but on Piped you can create a Piped account and on mobile use Yattee (iOS) or Libretube (Android). No recommendations on home screen, but subscriptions feed and recommendations per video.

This is why I use Smartube on my android TV and revanced/NewPipe on my phone.

The few times I've witnessed naked YouTube it's made be realise that if any of the sources mentioned stop working then I'm simply not going to use YouTube.

Ok so I’m not saying the correct solution to this is to just give Google the money they want, but for me YouTube premium is the best value for any streaming service my family subscribes to. (Unless you count the lifetime Plex pass I got on sale years ago, lol)

Things like our smart TV or the kid’s iPad work flawlessly, including convenient downloads for trips. And since I watch a lot on my TV, it’s nice having higher bitrate available.

YouTube music is a nice addon for music in the car, even though it doesn’t make or break the deal.

And as I understand it, creators make significantly more money from premium views than ad-supported views. I like watching all kinds of niche scientific/tech/educational creators so I like to know they’re getting a bit more from me

I stayed at a place last year that had a RokuTV, YouTube was practically unusable on it due to the absurd number of ads that would play. Even more infuriating was that they were often the same ad, repeated.

Why are people not using Ublock Origin ?

I tried to give YouTube ads a chance at one point but they got ridiculous to the point I just can't.

For those with iOS, please watch through Firefox Focus. It blocks YT ads!

Here in Australia, there are so many F**king Betting ads on it too.

Just wish they'd ban any form of casino/gambling adverts

they just posted it in front of a video and wouldn’t let me watch anything until I disabled my adblocker.

I've never had this happen to me with Firefox + ublock origin.

If you want youtube on mobile, I recommend Libretube. Or just use mobile Firefox with ublock origin.

https://www.soundandvision.com/files/_images/200902/2172009173627.jpg

Quit using shitty browsers? I see zero ads on YouTube in Firefox with ad blockers. I mean there's about a million other reasons to not use Chrome as well, but use this anger as your catalyst.

I highly recommend using either Piped (has an app for android, too) or invidious (several instances to choose from). No need to use adblock or anything while watching from them. Some videos don't play, seems more common with music videos, but for most stuff it'll work fine.

I use NoScript to block every script from google except for ytimg and youtube and I haven't seen anything like that; though, I do only watch 1-2 videos at a time, maybe I haven't 'triggered' it.

I can even disable origin and still not see any ads because NoScript blocks them from loading in the first place.

The day YouTube successfullly made it so that it won't work without playing ads is the day I delete every google account I have

I'm not putting up with it

I had a playlist that I was watching when I was working with raw meat (can't touch the phone). Next video comes up and it's a 8 minute ad that I can't skip because I can't touch my phone. Argh.

Anyone here subscribed to Nebula or CuriosityStream? On paper it seems like a much better arrangement for creators and viewers but I'm curious as to anyone's personal experience with the quality of the service.