Like others, desktop I’m using Firefox with ublock origin. Android phone, Firefox with ublock origin. Android TV, SmartTube. Ad blockers have always outpaced Google in my experience though I use youtube maybe like twice a week and I don’t randomly browse reccomendations. Just there for specific stuff
The ads themselves got worse too, not just about skipping them.
I see toooooooooo many ads about Taichi for men over 60. Fml, now it becomes Military calisthenic for men over 40…Also those ads with the zombie games…
I’m getting this weird fucking modal popup for the ad it just displayed. It sticks around in the bottom left corner of the screen after the ad ends, displaying throughout the duration of the actual video and blocking out like 20% of the screen (until I explicitly close the damn modal).
Almost all of the ads I see on the home page are of type “Hot ${GROUP} in your area.”
I don’t see any ads. Grayjay goes brrr!
Fuck Reddit and Fuck Spez.
Do yourself a favor and never turn on WiFi on your smart TV, get an android streaming box, and install projectivy launcher on it. Then you can sideload smartube the adfree YouTube client with downvotes, dearrow and sponsorblock built in.
My solution is to just close youtube. There’s nothing on there I want to see that badly.
Mine is Firefox + adblockers.
I like watching SciShow and Crashing Out.
My setup to make YouTube bearable:
Firefox mobile and the following extensions:
- uBlock Origin
- DeArrow
- Hide-Shorts
- SponsorBlock
If you’re getting the ads you’re there to watch something you wanted to watch.
And you can decide the thing you want isn’t worth the cost.
I use the YouTube TV app.
If I see ad breaks that are longer than ~20 seconds, I just back out and try again (if I’m just starting to watch a video) or go to history and resume (if in progress). YouTube can try to show another godawful long ad, but I’ll just back out again and again until they stop being stupid.
Protip: Number may go bigger, but I’m not changing this behaviour.
I hope the advertisers demand meticulous statistics, and are asking YouTube why so many users balked after 1 second.
Actually over the Easter holidays, my tablet was having horrible time with YouTube (the Android app is absolute garbage and doesn’t like old devices, and by old I mean 5 years) and sometimes ads made the YouTube app go suck mud and the tablet needed to be rebooted (!!!) before it worked again. So I watched YouTube on my laptop instead. With uBlock. Silence. Beautiful silence.
Ha! I do this too! You can hit back and then OK three times in rapid succession to break out of the ad too.
I accidentally found myself outside my ad blocking bubble the other day and looking at youtube. It immediately pissed me off to have to put up with.
ikr whenever I visit my elderly aunt, she has cable TV on. I timed it once and there’s like 10 minutes of ads for every 20 minutes of content.
sounds about right. half hour tv shows last about 21 minutes. hour long ones last about 42. you used to get a little more time but there was like a minute or two of wiggle room each episode. hour longs used to last 52. writing for streaming is more fun because you get the flexibility you want, but people still expect 30/60 minute shows.
Do they? Tsk.
It’s like they want people to block ads holy crap. Next chance I get I’m installing invidious on my parent’s roku so they can skip this garbage.
Personally I think it’s time to just move on you tube is done.
But if it’s roku they can add the playlet channel. Youtube without ads.
YouTube will not be done until a viable alternative is established.
Its done for me, there is nothing there I need to see.
I’m really surprised by this. YouTube is such a great source for adding skills and knowledge if you can weed through the crap.
It is admittedly more and more difficult to weed though.
every time a viable alternative is established google will buy it
Lets all just collectively refuse to engage with or buy a product from any company that runs a 90 second unskippable add on youtube.
Going for infinite growth in a worth in which ‘inflation’ is not properly recognized as a result of the rich stealing from the rest, results inevitably in services worsening until they kill themselves.
Me using SmartTube and PipePipe/Tubular:
lol wut?
Why would you even use them when revanced is there now
Don’t forget Unwatched if you’re on iOS platforms!
Thank you for this! I did not know this was an option.
Seems like youtube forces sign-in using Unwatched on iOS? An alternative is Vinegar which replaces the video player in Safari, and skips the ads, mostly and usually (until youtube updates some things then vinegar needs to catch up).
I love revanced so much…
That’s crazy. I’m seeing as long as 15 seconds ads and considering no longer wasting my time on YouTube
