YouTube continues to go after third-party apps that block its ads and reduce its revenue.
YouTube's ad battle is well underway after the company has tried for years to prevent third-party program makers from blocking its ads.
It's a constant battle. In March 2022 Google managed to stop its growth YouTube Advanced which excluded its advertisements.
In August 2023, it generated pop-up messages when web browsers with ad blockers were used to play YouTube videos, warning users that their video would not play unless those ad blockers were disabled.
Now, one new announcement on the support page of YouTube published on Monday indicates that third-party YouTube apps that attempt to end ads will receive similar treatment.
The new support message says that people using third-party apps that block YouTube ads may experience buffering issues when trying to watch a video stream. They may also see the error message “The following content is not available in this app” (The following content is not available on this app).
YouTube stated the reasons for this new crackdown on third-party ad blocking apps:
Θέλουμε να τονίσουμε ότι οι όροι μας δεν επιτρέπουν σε εφαρμογές τρίτων να απενεργοποιούν τις διαφημίσεις, επειδή αυτό δεν επιτρέπει στον δημιουργό να ανταμείβεται για τις προβολές και ότι οι διαφημίσεις στο YouTube μας βοηθούν να υποστηρίζουμε τους δημιουργούς και επιτρέπουν σε δισεκατομμύρια people σε όλο τον κόσμο να χρησιμοποιούν την service flow.
The message added that if a third party on YouTube violates the API Terms of Service, "we will take appropriate measures to protect our platform, creators and viewers."
The only official way to get rid of YouTube ads is to buy a YouTube Premium subscription. The unofficial one is the various third-party programs, such as NewPipe, or browsers that can and do intercept scripts, such as Brave.
