Having to wait with a black screen before the video starts is completely acceptable to me.
Having to watch Ads is not.
this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2025
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I pay for YouTube premium so that I can leave the app and listen to videos. I still get ads even though I’m paying. I don’t think there’s a single surefire way to avoid them.
Use Firefox + ublock origin.
Start the video, get out of the app/lock you phone, then swipe down and click on 'play' on the media controls.
This works on andriod, unsure about ios.
Nebula's getting better and I spend more time there now than on YouTube. Happy that YouTube is working hard to encourage this transition.
and i might just stop using youtube. does youtube think there aren't other options?
What options? Where can I find stuff about fixing my motorcycle? Oceanliners? Deep Space documentaries? Fixing dieselinjectors in my car etc?
There exists a massive, global network of websites that are all easily searchable through various means.
I look up and view similar topics to you and never use YouTube for them.
Try searching the internet as a whole!
Reddit and Discord killed that, sorry, the Internet you're referring to is dying and almost dead.
If it takes too long to load I just use yt-dlp to download the video or whole playlist and watch it later. Do I care that it's putting additional strain on YouTube's servers? Indeed, I'm devastated and overtaken with guilt 😂 These are tears of regret, I swear 😂
And as an added bonus yt-dlp defaults to maximum quality! Even more strain on YouTube servers!
"Might"? They're already doing it.
YouTube in Firefox with Ublock Origin is getting throttled down to 1500kbps. I can't watch anything above 720p on my desktop anymore (with gigabit internet).
YouTube ReVanced on mobile and SmartTube Next on the TV still thankfully work without issues.
This does not happen on my Firefox. 4k no problemo with 3rd world country internet.
Youtube acting like it has anything to offer aside slop and people who think they're philosopher kings because they play video games.
there's tons on there, just because you haven't found it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
The amount of people in this thread willing to go to bat for a corporate-owned entity is fucking weird.
agreed
But I don't have adblockers installed and I still get told to turn my blocker off. I have no extensions and YouTube randomly stops my video to tell me I'm doing it wrong.
Edit: I guess this is the result when dealing with the kind of users who refuse to watch ads, but also can't fuck off like decent human beings. Just millions of people who will climb your fence, pick your locks, smash your window, because they deserve to watch content, but they won't pay or watch ads.
Umm.... Maybe. Let's take a look.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/267606/quarterly-revenue-of-google/:
In the first quarter of 2025, Google's revenue amounted to over 89.52 billion U.S. dollars, up from the 79.97 billion U.S. dollars registered in the same quarter a year prior.
... They'll survive.
I guess the content creators take the hit when users block ads or refuse to use premium.
Edit: your addendum is false. Technically YouTube freely delivers (answers http gets and posts), the user just refuses to watch all of their content or take part in the tracking. No broken windows or climbed fences.
If I thought that way about YouTube, why not just be a sovcit about laws in general? I don't want to cherry pick philosophy. Let's go all in on technicalities and loopholes and definitions and wording. Life is a video game where X leads to Y because that's the rules. YouTube is merely answering requests, and I'm merely watching a curated selection of data. They have a TOS but I never agreed to it. For I'm not a user or customer, but a Netizen, and we have rights.
about laws in general
Terms of Service aren't laws. Breaking them is not illegal. It's like using the waterslide while sitting and not lying on your back. In fact, it's explicitly legal to use an adblocker and control what happens on your device in both the EU and the US. There are ongoing debates whether the surveillance required for blocking adblockers is legal in the EU.
Google does break laws all the time by the way, and is holding a monopoly. If people had to pay for Youtube, alternatives would spring up overnight, but since you can still watch Youtube free, they can't.
Also, I'd be the happiest person if Google finally figured out how to block people with adblockers completely, so that the majority of people would wean themselves off of one of the world's biggest disinfo peddlers.
Jokes on them, I already watch videos at 0.5x
Thats a good one for 0.5x (soup store)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=fNcYtcVn-8k
how did you turn those anime boys into New York City grandpas, that was amazing