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Google Ramps Up Crackdown on YouTube Ad-Blocking, Targets Third-Party Apps (www.ghacks.net)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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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.

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.

For those looking to avoid ads or improve privacy, here are some options for free, open source, privacy-friendly frontends to YouTube without advertisements:

https://www.privacyguides.org/en/frontends/#youtube

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[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 36 points 7 months ago (32 children)

I was a happy subscriber when I was paying $15/mo for a family plan for 6 people. I was grandfathered into a low rate for being an early adopter of Google Play Music All Access.

Then they decided that grandfathered plans no longer applied and wanted me to start paying $23/mo, a more than 50% increase, so I canceled. I switched to Spotify for the music, where I pay less, and just watch less YouTube since the ads are ridiculous.

If they kept it at $15/mo, I'd still be a subscriber. If they sold just ad-free YouTube for like $3/mo, I'd consider subscribing to that and keeping my Spotify subscription.

[–] Meltrax@lemmy.world 30 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (31 children)

It costs $23/mo for fucking YouTube? And to get the same experience you get with a free browser add-on? Fuck all of that. Absolutely not.

[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yep. Their excuse is that you also get YouTube music out of it, but there is no option to buy them separately.

At this point I have no interest in moving away from Spotify, so Google's gonna have to play ball if they want to get me back. It's sad, too, when it seems like every other YouTube link I visit from my phone brings up a prompt begging me to subscribe again.

[–] newcool1230@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago

lol then one day youtube music appears in https://killedbygoogle.com/

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