Abstract
- YouTube is cracking down on apps that violate its terms of use, especially those that block ads.
- These types of apps may now encounter buffering issues and an error message that prevents playback.
- YouTube Premium is an alternative solution, but requires a paid subscription.
Over the past year, we’ve seen a lot of changes on YouTube, some of which have had a big impact on the way people enjoy the platform. Since ad revenue is a major part of YouTube, the brand has been quite aggressive in going after those who try to circumvent the system. Towards the end of 2023, it started cracking down on ad blockers, and now it seems it’s trying to crack down on third-party apps that don’t adhere to its rules.
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The news comes straight from YouTube’s support page, which has announced that it will begin cracking down on apps that violate its terms of service, specifically those that engage in ad blocking. This isn’t the first time YouTube has taken action against this type of app, and Vanced was discontinued in 2022. Of course, if you’re not sure if this will affect your app, you’ll probably soon find out just by watching some videos, because you’ll either run into issues with clipboard or receive an error message that reads: “The following content is not available in this application.”
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Of course, things can always change, and developers become even more creative to try to find other solutions. But for now, it looks like apps that don’t follow the guidelines will struggle or be forced to use the official YouTube app as a workaround. The official YouTube app will provide one of the better experiences, offering a wide range of features, but if you want to be ad-free, you’ll have to pay every month and become a YouTube Premium subscriber.
As for what you get when you upgrade to Premium, you will no longer see ads in the app or the videos you watch. Plus, you’ll get access to background playback, along with the ability to download videos on the go. Perhaps what makes this plan even more worthwhile is that you get access to YouTube Music, which contains more than 100 million commercial-free songs. Now, one downside is that these features aren’t free, with a subscription costing $13.99 per month in the US.
But you get a lot of benefits, and for some it offers great value, and if you’re not so sure, you can always sign up for a trial. Let us know in the comments if this affects you and if you’ll be switching to YouTube Premium.
Thanks: Moshe