YouTube adverts

[DeskJockey]

What fresh hell is this? App now displays a little ad after the in-video ones that you have to manually dismiss. Are they that desperate to drive users away?

[Beany]

I mean, they literally delay the playback of videos if you use an adblocker on a desktop browser.

So, er, yes.

[Gavster]

Or you can sign up to YouTube Premium for only £7.99 per month

Advertising generally does ruin everything. Even though I get some of that ad revenue, it's very clear that it doesn't create a nice user experience.

[Jobbo]

How do you get it for £7.99? It's £12.99 for individual membership. I don't mind paying that because I don't pay for Sky, Netflix etc and get good value from it.

There may be ways round the adverts (I used to watch in Safari on my phone with an ad-blocker rather than the app, which was effective 5 years ago) but now I mainly use a smart TV to watch and I'd have no idea how to get round ads on that.

[Gavster]

The £7.99 is just the premium-lite which gets rid of most ads, it's not the full version with music and downloads etc.

[Mito Man]

It’s unwatchable on a tv when I was using it for Goodwood a few weeks ago. You will get a reel of 5 ads in a row every 10 minutes.
Youtube premium costs the same as Netflix which when you consider one is for a full blown film producer then that’s a bit rich just to not play some ads.

[dinny_g]

Way it's going - Prime now want more money to go Add Free but they can do one. I already pay enough.

And to be honest, at 51 years old, I appreciate the opportunity for toilet break in a 2 hour film...

[Jobbo]

The £7.99 is just the premium-lite which gets rid of most ads, it's not the full version with music and downloads etc.

Ah, thanks - that's a good sign for me because they'll no doubt gradually introduce some form of ads on the paid service but they'll probably start with the cheaper tiers.

I do use the music and downloads functions; I don't have Apple Music and you can integrate Youtube Music with Apple Home for Homepods etc, and use it in the car over Carplay. And it doesn't have missing tracks like Spotify does because it'll just use the audio from uploads if it's particularly obscure.

[Brannen]

I've had YouTube premium for a while now and I've found it really worthwhile. When they really cracked down on ad-blockers, I just tried the free trial and got hooked in. I'm assuming it's a premium feature, but it will let you jump ahead of an in video sponsors which is quite handy.

I also sacked off Netflix etc, so doesn't feel too bad paying the £12.99 a month, as it's where I consume most things these days.

[Gavster]

It’s unwatchable on a tv when I was using it for Goodwood a few weeks ago. You will get a reel of 5 ads in a row every 10 minutes.

Absolutely that. Using AirPlay to send it to the TV from my phone is an absolutely hateful experience.

[Beany]

The £7.99 is just the premium-lite which gets rid of most ads, it's not the full version with music and downloads etc.

Ah, thanks - that's a good sign for me because they'll no doubt gradually introduce some form of ads on the paid service but they'll probably start with the cheaper tiers.

Pretty sure they already have for Shorts.

Which is why I'm not paying Youtube to sell my data, and also serve me ads.

[Jobbo]

Do you use gmail? Or search using google at all? I think there's a hell of a lot less data I care about in my watch history than there is in other google services.

Anyway, if you use Shorts then maybe stick to the Tiktok alternative. After all, it's ultimately controlled by the Chinese government so it's bound to be safe and secure.

[Beany]

Nah, i avoid shorts like the plague, it's the inevitable enshittification of everything that gets me.

[Barry]

I'm getting ever more belligerent in my old age, if YouTube make it any worse I'll just stop bothering with it. The greed from every angle is just doing my swede in.

Just this week had the regular argument over my fibre charges, new customers pay half what I was offered, had to waste an hour threatening to leave etc etc.

Just fed up with all of it.

[Jobbo]

Not adverts causing me grief now but seemingly a change to the algorithm. The Home page has for ages been pretty good at offering me up the channels I usually watch and the related stuff I wasn't aware of. Now it's showing me far less from the channels I usually watch (so I have to go to my Subscriptions page), far more random stuff which duplicates stuff I've already watched and, most annoyingly, loads of stuff I've watched before - not just in the last week but stuff I watched a year or more ago. It keeps offering me Harry's Farm from last week despite me watching it all the way through in the first place.

I guess they give it a wholesale shake-up every now and again both to see what happens and because to stimulate more engagement but it is sending me back to playlists and subs rather than relying on Home. Which must be counter-productive.

[Beany]

@Jobbo this might help

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detai ... mile?hl=en

Available for Firefox, too.

Lets you, for example, tell the page to not display videos that you have, say, over 80% watch time on (as well as loads and loads of other tweeks, like going back to having thumbnails that aren't so big you can't get more than three on screen at a time etc)

For the devoid of clicky:

• Hide Sponsored videos & promos
• Skip ads
• Hide Merch, Offers etc. (desktop version)

Annoyances:

• Hide AI summaries
• Remove pink gradient from progress bars
• Hide information panels
• Hide Premium upsells
• Automatically pause channel trailers (desktop version)
• Allow background playback (mobile version)
• Hide Open App links (mobile version)

Video lists:

• Hide suggested sections
• Hide Live videos
• Hide Streamed videos
• Hide Mixes
• Hide Playlists
• Hide Movies and TV
• Hide Upcoming videos
• Hide Members only videos
• Hide watched videos
• Hide hidden videos - Hides the "Undo" button after 5 seconds
• Hide channels - Adds "Hide channel" to video menus
• Disable Home feed
• Search thumbnail size (desktop version)
• Minimum grid items per row (desktop version)

Video pages:

• Disable Autoplay
• Hide Related videos
• Hide the Next button
• Hide Share/Thanks/Clip etc.
• Hide video metadata
• Hide Comments
• Always use theater mode (desktop version)
• Full size theater mode (desktop version) - Hide header / Hide scrollbar
• Always use original audio (desktop version)
• Hide Miniplayer button (desktop version)
• Hide video end cards (desktop version)
• Hide video endscreen content (desktop version)
• Hide Chat (desktop version)
• Add Take snapshot to video menu (JPEG / PNG) (desktop version)
• Make Transcript downloadable (desktop version)

Shorts:

• Hide Shorts
• Redirect Shorts to the normal player
• Hide suggested actions
• Always show progress bar
• Stop Shorts looping
• Hide Remix button (desktop version)
• Hide Shorts metadata until hover (desktop version)
• Minimum Shorts per row (desktop version)

UI tweaks:

• Hide categories in Home
• Hide channel banner images
• Hide Search with your voice
• Link YouTube logo to Subscriptions (desktop version)
• Tidy Guide sidebar (desktop version)
• Hide "Latest" bar in Subscriptions (desktop version)
• Use grid view for Subscriptions & Search (portrait only) (mobile version)
• Hide Explore button in Home (mobile version)
• Hide channel list in Subscriptions (mobile version)

Embedded videos:

• Hide Share button
• Hide pause overlay

[Jobbo]

Cheers Beany. I've used lots of plugins over the years, got used to them then found they're no longer usable after a Chrome update and therefore I have to belatedly get used to the new way of doing things.

Most Youtube I watch on telly or using the app on my phone or tablet so one plugin is never going to work, sadly.

[Beany]

Ah, that's a ballache. My only suggestion would be to sling a used Mac Mini under the telly and use that instead (I think you had a set up like that before) where that'll work, but yeah, youtube on mobile and on appliances is just....god it's just a terrible experience.

[Jobbo]

I do still have the 2012 Mac Mini which was originally for that purpose, but that was before smart TVs. No need for it doing that job now.

[Beany]

My Smart TV can play youtube too. Badly. Which is why I have a Ryzen mini PC connected to it via HDMI with a wireless keyboard/trackpad combo, with the above plugin and Sponsorblock

Suppose it depends at what point it becomes a complete ballache - when you just want to watch something, and there's 2mins of preroll ads and then ten ad breaks in the middle etc. Which is a thing I sometimes see when I, say, see a video linked in Discord and think about watching it in the embed.

I then usually go "fuck that shit", copy link, and watch in a browser instead.