YouTube is on the prowl. In October, the Google-owned platform kicked off a war against desktop users using an adblocker, all in a desperate attempt to get the service’s Premium numbers up. It… sort of worked, but now the company is cracking down on its largest demographic yet: mobile users.
Well, not entirely. YouTube is now targeting those third-party apps that use its API to circumvent the incessant ads on the platform– found most commonly on mobile devices. The company said as much in a recent community announcement, noting that it was “strengthening our enforcement on third-party apps that violate YouTube’s Terms of Service, specifically ad-blocking apps. ”
End of an era
That means a couple of things. If you’re a fan of apps such as AdGuard or SmartTube, it’s time to say your goodbyes. YouTube doesn’t have the power to shut these apps down entirely, but it can, and is, rendering them virtually unusable. At least until one of those apps manages to get around the new rules.
Rather than force users to whitelist the app or turn off their adblocker entirely, as it did when it fired the first shots against desktop users in October, it’s going a different route. Viewers using apps such as AdGuard as a solution to the ever-growing number of ads before a YouTube video will result in buffering issues or even a “The following content is not available on this app” error message.
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“We want to emphasize that our terms don’t allow third-party apps to turn off ads because that prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership, and Ads on YouTube help support creators and let billions of people around the world use the streaming service,” the community announcement reads.
Of course, you could always avoid the hassle by selling your soul and picking up a subscription to YouTube Premium, which has been the goal right from the beginning. The YouTube Music app included in the R70/m fee might not be all Spotify is cracked up to be, but it’s worth looking at – even if only for protection against ads.