Google just announced that it is intensifying its fight against adblockers on YouTube. The message was posted to the official YouTube support website.

The writing was on the wall. Reports about changes on YouTube designed to prevent users from using adblockers started in early 2023.  Users with adblockers saw anti-adblocking prompts and Google ran several tests on YouTube to fight adblocking.

Google confirmed the crackdown on adblockers in November 2023. Affected users were given two options: turn off the adblocker on YouTube or pay for YouTube Premium.

New ways of making ads more endurable were discovered. Extensions that skip or fast forward ads appeared in extension stores.

Google did not only fight adblocking in browsers. It also is fighting against YouTube frontends, such as Invidious, and third-party YouTube apps.  Google had some success in this regard in the past. In 2022, its actions caused YouTube Vanced to be discontinued.

Google's fight against third-party apps

Today's announcement puts Google's focus on third-party apps that "violate YouTube's Terms of Service". Here, Google is focusing on apps that include ad-blocking capabilities. The company mentions none in the announcement, but it clearly took a swing at Invidious last week already.

Google warns users of these apps that their experience may deteriorate soon. They may "experience buffering issues" or see errors such as "the following content is not available on this app" when trying to watch videos.

The terms on YouTube disallow apps to "turn off ads". Turning off ads "prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership" according to Google. It fails to mention that it is keeping a big chunk of the revenue as the maintainer of the platform.

Google suggests that YouTube users who do not want to see ads subscribe to YouTube Premium.

The company will "take appropriate action" when it finds third-party apps that violate YouTube's terms.

Closing Words

Similar to Google Search, ads have become insufferable for many users of the service. There are too many of them, they may break the viewing experience, and they may show inappropriate content.

YouTube Premium is expensive. What weights more for some users is that its functionality is severely limited when compared to third-party apps.

The cat and mouse game continues.

Do you use YouTube? Would you use it if you couldn't block ads? (via 9to5 Google)