I’m so glad I’m not the only one. I don’t watch ads, as a rule. They might play, but I don’t watch or listen to them.
I do the same thing when I choose to “watch” ads in games for rewards (except I have to disable my pihole for that). Basically I’m trading losing my enjoyment for 30 seconds for whatever the reward, and they can have a tiny bit of my data (like wifi, not personal data), but I will not actually consume that bullshit.
I may not have a choice in how the model works, but I can choose not to participate.
Sucks to be them, too, because if they weren’t making me sit through ads I’d probably give them money directly, which would be worth a lot more… but I don’t support double dipping so… 🤷🏻
This is precisely how I feel.
For youtube:
- SponsorBlock and uBlock Origin (browser extensions)
- Youtube ReVanced (Android)
Youtube Vanced (Android)(unmaintained)- SmartTube (Chromecast)
- RootMyTV (Smart TV, LG)
also for android: NewPipe, LibreTube, browser
Youtube Vanced got shut down. That’s why ReVanced exists. Don’t used Vanced it’s no longer maintained. https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/13/22975890/youtube-vanced-app-discontinued-shutting-down-legal-reasons
Alternative for android is to use Firefox with ublock origin as it supports extensions on mobile.
true! tho kind of annoying
+1 for Newpipe, it’s amazing. I can’t imagine watching YouTube without it at this point. It’s basically YouTube premium but free, and with some extra features like channel groups. Oh and no sign-in.
uYou+ for iOS
Or just Brave Browser. Works for Android, iOS, PC, etc.
On android just disable the built in YouTube app if you can’t remove it. For casting toggle desktop mode on the browser.
Brave is a very shady browser though.
Why is it shady?
The only thing I’ve seen recently was that some companies were upset that they were selling data (website data, not user data) for training AI models, but that’s the same legal battle that OpenAI is fighting right now with ChatGPT. We’ll have to see what the courts decide for that.
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Hits mute while looking away
I’m more of a mute person than looking away. It’s funny how ads look silly without sound. Also, it doesn’t stick in your head.
If it’s youtube, I just back completely out of the video and exit the app and go somewhere else with my time. I do it every time, and now they don’t show me 30 second unskippable ads anymore.
so you never watch YouTube anymore?
Try Newpipe
You can get the same result by refreshing the page until it doesn’t give you an ad or gives your a skippable one. Usually works well enough for me.
Now when they have an ad in the video more than 3 times in 30 minutes I’m out
My 6 yo taught me if you click the i and then select don’t show this ad it’s skips straight to the video on YouTube
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mine did the same.
makes me wonder what it does to The Algorithm though
I got fed up with ads back in the early 90s and it fitted with we got a VCR so we could skip the several minute long ad segments.
Same with ads on websites, started using ad blockers in the 2000s when sites became unusable because of ads.
A few years ago YouTube went from occasionally showing one 5 second ad, and all ads longer than 5 seconds could be skipped. To multiple five second ads I got enough, and now it’s getting as bad as flow TV.
There is another solution, I often use: “Turn off the video, and turn it on again.” Do that 'till they give you short/skipable add, or even better 'till you’re so god damn angry, that you turn off the app.
I’m so used to adblock that when I see an ad, I either immediately close the app in frustration or spend the next god knows how long blocking the ads. Still can’t block YT ads on my TV so I don’t use YT there. And if I must… cast from my phone or PC where it is blocked.
That’s what I do. They still get revenue from this though.
I’m taking that 25 seconds to install ad blocker
Can’t have that on a non-Android Smart TV :'(
Could plug in an external box to one of the inputs
I already considered something like that. And if I would do this just for Youtube I could get an YT premium account as well, because there won’t be a significant difference cost-wise. Maybe I looked for the wrong boxes?
Use it as the dumb tv it is and plug in something better.
Smarttubenext is good for android tv
(Copy-pasta from a similar comment reply:)
I already considered something like that. And if I would do this just for Youtube I could get an YT premium account as well, because there won’t be a significant difference cost-wise. Maybe I looked for the wrong boxes?
I mute them on the TV at least.
I CAN’T HEAR YOUUU.
BILLY MAYS HERE
Better option, or safer: https://newpipe.net/
NewPipe
Or Firefox with an adblocker. I haven’t watched an ad in what feels like a decade now.
They won’t get your eyeballs…yet
From the FAQ section:
How do you know if a user is watching the PreShow video?
We use proprietary facial recognition technology. That’s why it’s so easy to pause the viewing, and resume it later, at your leisure.But that’s voluntary. It’s not like you have to use that service. You could just buy a movie ticket.
However… If (or more like when) Google decides to go and add eye tracking to the JavaScript idle detection API, we’re all fucked. Sit back and watch this whole five minute YouTube ad… or let us make sure you’re watching a 30-second one.
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You could print an image and hang it before the camera or place a life-sized cardboard human there.
BTW: We’re not all fucked. Only those who use Google products are.
A second camera pointing at a different angle would squash that workaround, sadly. And if it gets to the point of paper mache humans, I wouldn’t put them past it to add a third, infrared camera.
BTW: We’re not all fucked. Only those who use Google products are.
I wouldn’t be too sure about that. Non-comforming browsers could just be blocked or forced to watch the longer, unskippable ad. Similar concerns to how the implementation (or refusal to implement) web environment integrity would create a two-tiered internet.
While I’d miss but could maybe do without the entertainment from YouTube, I need the software tutorials.
There were software tutorials before Youtube, and there will be after.
Personally, I hate having to watch a video to learn something because reading a text is just so much faster.
Than we can do “let me play the ads when I feel like it”, so I can log on and watch 10-20 minutes of ads and than watch 10 hours of videos? Why just irritating me on random?
Or read a book.
