uBlock origin!!
And PiHole, Sponsorblock, Adguard and ReVanced (depending on the device). This is a strict "no ads" household.
Smarttube for set top boxes like Nvidia shield etc: https://smarttubeapp.github.io/
Also Adaway
Don't forget Grayjay (or anything FUTO makes in general)
There is also uYou for iOS users.
Amazon Prime on my XBox literally doesn't work without my PiHole. I need to block the ads otherwise nothing plays. My PiHole was recently down for a few days and suddenly we couldn't finish any of the shows we were on.
Never trust these companies, they want to destroy their own products in the name of profit. Undermine them everywhere you can.
The vending machine would reject all bills because uBlock developers don't accept donations.
Billy should really not support them, Ad Block Plus let’s advertisers pay for having their ads checked as "acceptable advertisements", i.e. is selling out the core functionality of their product. Billy should use uBlock origin, which afaik does not accept donations, he could however support something like PiHole .
I’m pretty sure those ads also have to meet certain criteria though.
Using ABP, I’ve never had a popup ad, full page ad, auto-playing video, or other intrusive form of advertisement. The “acceptable ads” have been quiet and out of the way in what would otherwise be empty space.
With the understanding that some websites and content creators are entirely reliant on ad revenue, I prefer to have those filtered down to those that don’t provide a burdensome experience.
I will say that having a new tab open with a solicitation for a donation / “premium” every single update (so almost daily) is irritating and they better knock that shit off if they don’t want to alienate users.
The “acceptable ads” have been quiet and out of the way in what would otherwise be empty space.
I don't mind this whatsoever. I can appreciate the concept of free is paid for by ads, but when you force me to sit there and have to watch it, or pop ups take over the page, all that excessive nonsense, that's when I say fuck off and use an ad blocker that will remove everything.
I actually think dating sites could be improved if they had an ad you could swipe away every 10 swipes or something. (I absolutely loath swipe only apps though. I need to know your personality not your duck face pose....) for apps with bios they could have a "banner" type ad that is between segments of the bio. Anything but "pay $50+/month to make this somewhat functional."
I have no problem with the acceptable ads system. ABP doesn't get any money from it, and the ads have to meet the criteria anyways, and it's easy to opt out. I guess it's a bit fishy that the list maintainers charge money to get ads reviewed, but the FAQ ThunderWhiskers posted says that smaller companies get it for free, and they only charge the bigger companies. I'm not gonna get up in arms over someone charging Disney money for a service they give the local deli for free.
I also like the way it gives companies an incentive to produce less intrusive ads. With the system, unintrusive ads reach more people. Otherwise, it's all or nothing, which makes intrusive ads the best option from a greedy perspective; they're far more likely to be clicked, and the only cost is the risk of damaging the ad ecosystem as a whole (and you know how little corporations can care about damaging ecosystems.)
adblock plus is shilled and lets ads through.
ublock origin, folks. and firefox, because adblocking wont work on chromium anymore.
Someone should edit this image lol
ublock origin is so based, the dev doesn't even accept donations. He wants people to donate to the chads maintaining the lists his add-on uses instead.
I can understand both sides and I've been on both sides. Wanting to donate to show appreciation and help support an awesome project, and not accepting donations due to creating the burden of unfair support/development expectations for a volunteer project.
It really is such a cool extension.
ublock origin baby best adblocker ever
Did you read the title?
are you always this fun?
Nope
I gave Premium a shot. Then the one time I wanted to use the feature Google said I was paying for - being able to download videos - I found out that it was just a glorified pre-buffer.
- Can't view the video outside the youtube app or the website, source video file encrypted ✅️
- Can't view the video if you havent connected to the internet in 3 days ✅️
- Does less than your average youtube downloader that you can find for free with one search ✅️
- Literally just saving Youtube bandwidth because they destroyed every benefit you would get if it was actually reasonable ✅️
Enshittification isnt just limited to free users folks. Slammed that cancellation button right then and there. Good luck earning back my trust, I'm happy to pay if you didnt scream so loudly that even if I paid, you were going to treat me like shit anyways.
Make sure that google can't kill you without consequences after you bought one month of their subscription.
Ah yes, the Disney model
I pay for it and I like the perks. You are giving YouTube money, but also the creator of the video. And synchronizes the view with your account. And takes it into account for the dreaded "algorithm" (which I also find useful, plenty of cool channels discovered thanks to it).
What did you expect, exactly?
I like those perks too, but if I pay more to be able to download videos (which again, I could've used a free tool for) I want to be able to do whatever I want with it. Download means getting a file I can watch using my own video player and store for later even if Youtube dies tomorrow, If I go on holiday without internet, or if my internet goes down for a week. Anything.
If Google is going to be "Uhm aksually, you are technically downloading it, thats why we can advertise it like that", then I'm already downloading literally every video I watch. And thats not the kind of bullshit you give to a paying customer. That is spitting in my face for paying you. Why does a non-Premium user get better service with free third party youtube downloaders?
It's a matter of principle.
Wow thanks for the heads up on that! I kept getting tempted by that "Download" button thinking "No...it can't be that easy."
It's kinda amazing how much content uses existing content...so they quietly can't ruin downloading without tanking a lot of traffic.
Exactly, thinking that is what I was getting pulled me over the edge, I sometimes remember a music video I want to listen to on my phone during my commute and I don't want to spend 30 minutes either getting on my PC to download it with a tool, or using a third party downloader which can at times be shady. So upgrading that to a single click in the app seemed like a great deal. Crushingly disappointed when I found out how it actually was. Turns out the real answer was NewPipe, which I don't even have to pay for.
I believe gorhill says to support the filter list maintainers
Ah yes: Why don't you accept donations?
[…] Have a thought for the maintainers of the various lists. These lists are everything. I can not emphasize this enough.
This is the way, appeasement of ad producers doesn't work.
At some point number has to get bigger.
Before you know it were paying for cable tv with ads again.
Except this time we won't just be paying for the cable, we'll be paying to get the ads you want, too. You'll be paying for the DVR function or whatever they want.
As with everything else it will continue to degrade and enrage it's customers, and erode the entire country's very will to live. I am truly curious just how detrimental it is for everyone in this country to be exposed to the THOUSANDS of small fully intentional annoyances daily that are built into every product and service. It has to be a leading cause of how angry and divided we are and is absolutely causing many early deaths. Everyone is so stressed out by every single thing they interact with.
You should possibly look into some form of therapy if everything annoys you, especially if feels intentional.
A single piece of merch from your favorite creator will cover for any ads you would have seen for the foreseeable future anyway
I run UBO, SponsorBlock on FF. I have many t-shirts and hats from youtoobers. Someone was asking about my hat, I said it's a youtube channel, then they asked about my shirt and I said it's another youtube channel. I then thought of all the t-shirts I have in my drawer at home. I'd say well over half of them are youtube channel shirts. Made me think I am too deep down the youtube hole, but there is a ton of good content and I like supporting the ones I watch and enjoy. So merch is how I do it so I can be their advertisement. I may not even wear it much, but I'll buy to support them and to tell others about their channel.
Me but Vivaldi and Adnauseam.io.
Ads are a dystopian nightmare but for some reason nobody seems to care
Consider switching to something Firefox based cause Adnauseam will break when google kills of manifest v2 in a month or something
Adnauseam will break
when google kills of manifest v2 in a month or somethingIn June 2025, as of now. (Vivaldi only, other Browsers may differ, change to FireWaterLibreWolfFox regardless.)
Probably because unlike paying for the service, we don't feel how it takes our money from us.
A psychological trick that works so great that it made a lot of services exist in the first place like the whole of YouTube. And now we're kinda addicted to those too.
I use ublock AND pay for... Nebula.
YouTube: Has ads and sells your data like every other online service
Also YouTube: Doesn't pay creators much to the point where creators often have in-video advertisements but expects audiences on the platform to pay for an adless experience
That's not really correct. While yes, ads don't pay great, this is generally the case, and maintaining servers with these amounts of data is really expensive. And with YouTube premium, actually, YouTubers get paid quite well. You can take a look at the LTT finances video. They make more money from premium than from YouTube ads, even though only a small fraction has it.
me but ublock origin
how? The creator of uBlock origin doesn't take donations.
Using ublock origin, not donating. Donations go elsewhere
Or... do both. Buy premium because you are actually getting something for your money... a platform. And support ad blockers to stop the ads where the product is just a webpage.
Yeah. I'm actually okay with paying for a service I use daily. Google does a bunch of evil shit to drive its advertising business, but the reality is that nothing is free and somebody has to pay somewhere.
We can pay with money or we can pay with ads and personal data.
What I would like to see is a law banning data collection for paid accounts. Because right now Google datarapes you even when you pay.
but the reality is that nothing is free and somebody has to pay somewhere.
Youtube gained its market share and stopped any competitors arising by offering a free video platform. Now that there isn't much hope for competition they have enshitified, plastering ads and demanding money. They endured massive loses for years just to kill competition. So boo fucking hoo when I continue using a monopolists products on the terms they originally offered.
Selling personal data at all should just be banned. It says personal right in the name... Giving away free services with forced adds is exploitation in my opinion. The first step to solving the issue is to require everything have a paid option that gets rid of adds and doesn't sell personal data for additional profit. The hard part with that is preventing them from just setting the price unreasonably high.
There is still shit to block when you're paying for premium, so yeah.
Nah, don't give any money to google. They have enough.
Exactly this. Funding google is a bad investment. Exactly like the comic says, give it to someone who will improve your life.
I would pay, if they would offer family pack in our country, but they don't. Netflix is cheaper for me, I have Premium plan for 10€, and I am splitting the bill with my sister, so I only pay 5€ per month. I am not paying more than that for a YouTube.
I'm a GenZ-er, and I adblock everywhere I can. What makes the difference with YouTube premium for me is that I fall asleep to YouTube videos on a TV every night, and the advertisements alone can make that experience terrible because you can't adblock YT on a TV as easily as elsewhere. Premium might be one of my best decisions I've made for a platform I spend so much time on. I still donate to Wikipedia and uBlock even if I pay the premium for other services.
I still donate to ... uBlock
From https://ublockorigin.com/:
The uBlock Origin project still specifically refuses donations at this time
Who are you giving money to?
UBlock asks that you give to the blocklist maintainers.
Huh, I must've misremembered.
I'm a GenZ-er
I fall asleep
Typical genZ, getting those zzzz's. That's probably how they got the name.
so true
Youtube premium makes sense for me when combined in a family account for 5 with youtube music for 17.5 USD in total.
But besides that, fuck Google. Id pirate music if I wasn't so lazy but Google diminishing anything of what I currently get would probably give me some energy.
Holy crap, it's the Florida Man!
I do the same, but it has to be on my phone, and last I checked that wasn't an option with the screen off even with Premium. So I used Vanced (and now Revanced). I have moderate-to-severe tinnitus and this setup might have saved my life once or twice.
Premium has background playback! I use it to listen to video essays with my phone in my pocket when I'm working, screen off. Revanced was my go-to before premium but it has been a pain for me to patch recently (I'm just lazy) so I'm just using stock YT with Premium.
I don't believe for one single second that this will stay ad free. YouTube will eventually do like all the assholes do and have a tiered system where the first tier is simply less ads not none.
Even when you aren't seeing ads their algorithm is still controlling your front page, allowing them to push partner content that isn't directly advertising but still acts like it. The differences between a commercial for Doritos and an episode of Good Mythical Morning titled "Trying Every Doritos Flavor" from the perspective of the PepsiCo marketing department are that people might willingly click on the GMM video and they probably didn't even have to pay anyone for the video to happen.
Sure Rhett & Link may not have a partnership with Pepsi and are just innocently making content to give their audience (I genuinely believe this), so they've got no part in this becoming advertising, but you would have to be incredibly naïve to believe that Google's algorithm isn't smart enough to recognize that video and others like it as marketable content the promotion of which can be sold to PepsiCo.Premium subscribers may not be seeing ads, but they are absolutely still seeing advertising.
edit: typos
That's a good point, but to be honest even if those thumbnails were just straight up ads I'd be ok with that. I can simply not click on it. Having any kind of actual ad on a premium service is absolute bullshit though, that's straight up greed...
Hell as a free user I wouldn't mind in the slightest having their segments: videos, segment for shorts, more videos, be broken up to have videos, ad banner, shorts, videos, and banner etc... don't lock me into having to watch an ad but I do understand they need ad revenue and I don't mind seeing the still image ads "of the past" (well past for me since I've used an ad blocker for-absolutly-ever now.)
Not gonna lie, I bit the bullet and got YT Premium almost 5 years ago. Honestly, one of the best purchases I've ever made in my adult life, hands down
I had Youtube premium when it included google play music. GPM was so good...
I unsubscribed everything when they changed to youtube music. Terrible music platform
You're going to make me cry remembering my days with gpm. Hands down the best music platform that was.
Agreed. Plus I know my views pay slightly more to creators than ad-supported views (and far more than ad-block views) so I can feel superior to my fellow man.
I think it's worth it too. People are just weird about paying for a product that supports individuals creative ambitions just because a company takes a cut. Admittedly better content than streaming services most the time anyway.
I typically put children's music on YouTube when driving with my kid. Not having to shuffle with the phone to skip ads while in the car is a life saver.
I've had it for AGES. I agree that ads have been a bit much and many websites almost unusable without Origin. YT Premium though has been fairly solid with a couple hiccups.
Admittedly, I use YouTube as my primary source of entertainment. So the price is easily justified vs other services.
I agree with you but it made me physically nauseous to click the button because I remember a time when YouTube was awesome and free from ads.
Is there any real benefit for using premium over Adblocker?
Free (legal) movies. Most are stuff I don't want to see anyway, but every once in a while a diamond in the rough pops up
Edit: Like someone else mentioned, YT is my primary entertainment source for a few reasons, so I've definitely gotten my money's worth. I wouldn't recommend everyone get it, but I'm happy with my decision
Doesn't seem like you bit any bullet, you just paid for your subscription giving money away. What's the biting the bullet part for you?
Lol giving away money at all, especially to large monopolistic corporations like Google. They don't need my money, they already have plenty
I'll get YouTube premium once they fix their damn TV app.
- If I resume playing a video from history, it often plays the ads, then re-plays them shortly after. (You know, at the point when it hit me with a fucking 55 second ad and I backed out and said fuck no, are you shitting me. Double points if the ad it tries to play again is also ridiculously long. I just keep refreshing it until it gives me 5 seconds to skip. I'm not much of a gambler, but this much I can gamble.)
Admittedly, this bug is not applicable to Premium. Being ad-skippy and all. But it's indicative of the overall quality of the app. For example:
- When long-holding a video in all circumstances, I it should give me a full menu. Like, with the "go to the channel" option? ...doesn't give that to me in Subscriptions view. This might come as a surprise to YouTube, but I don't always like watching Whatever The Algorithm Feeds Me. I might, you know, choose to watch the 10 episodes I missed. To do that, I need to actually like to go to the channel in question.
- ...Or any of the channels I like or are particularly interested at the moment. There's no way to pin this shit either.
- Speaking of which, the fucking way to browse my subscriptions is fucking atrocious holy shit. It's useless. This is Google. They don't do user experience research. They half-ass everything.
- On my smart TV, sometimes the buttons just fuck up. Sometimes I can't control this shit. Because my TV operating system was designed by particularly deranged people, they thought "closing" or "restarting" any given app was space technology that no average consumer can understand, so they reduced that to bare minimums: the only way to restart the app is to pull the plug. This is just fucking demeaning.
A collaboration between Google and Samsung, people! Two giant corps serving millions of users! And they expect us to pay monthly fee for this holy shit
...sorry for the rant.
Tbf the only Android TV app I've used which is actually usable and has not-shit UX is SmartTube. Discovery Plus deserves a special place in hell.
I'm on it daily. A ton of hours between watching videos and enjoying the music catalogue. It's definitely the only reason I don't mind paying premium. No complaints.
to really support them, buy merch, subscribe to their patreon, make a donation via kofi... there are so many more viable ways to actually support your content creator than YT+.
Agree! I do merch and patreon for the channels I frequent.
And patreon/liberapay for creators and journalists I enjoy.
Hard-earned?
You don't know what daddy and Billy did in the panel before.
On PC and Android, I don't know why everyone doesn't use Youtube Revanced. Both the normal and extended editions are better than even YouTube Premium through their website and official app.
Is there a wiki for the best way to block ads per device type?
I've figures it out on Fire Stick (I know) and Firefox but I have no experience installing android apps via root or developer mode.
Use YouTube revanced. It's an app that patches the official YouTube apk. Basically you provide the version of the apk it requires (the patcher will tell you), select which patches you want (you can put all of them and disable what you don't need in the settings later) and if will create a new apk without ads that you can install
For android use either YouTube revanced or newpipe.
Also there is the piracy megathread which will help you with that!
Also adblocking DNS server in your router, or PiHole
Firefox, uBlock Origin, and Malwarebytes.
i think back in the day i would use adblock plus with chrome
