Youtube, a platform I am in love with for years. But I have also hated something along with it, the unwanted ads. Back in 2007 Youtube implemented ads as their advertising concept. Fast forward 2019, they are everywhere.
Have you tried listening to songs on autoplay, or a playlist? You can’t. Because there are ads at the start of the song, at the end of the song, even in-between the song. For me, Youtube ads are more annoying than the crying kid in the aisle seat. At least they are only for a few hours not forever.
But there is a skip button!. Well, how about the unskippable ones. The 5 min long ones or the Youtube Premium ads or their web series ads or surveys. If you have noticed, Youtube now doesn’t even tell you about the ads anymore. Now all they do is show a 5-sec timer before the ads. Even my ex was less frustrating!
Keeping which aside, here are two big questions. Why so many ads? and How to get rid of Youtube ads? How to Block Youtube ads on Android or even on your Chrome Browser?
Why Youtube ads?
To understand this, lets us get to the basics. Youtube is a free content sharing platform. But at the end of the day, it is business. And the goal of any business is to make money by providing values and using their resources. For Youtube, Values are the content and resources are us, the content consumers.
Youtube integrates ads to the videos. To watch that video we watch those ads. You like the ad, you click on it and you generated business for that advertising company. Youtube helped that company to generate that business, so the company pays them. Out of which, a percentage of that money is paid to the creator of the video.
You can call it a general cycle of monetizing content. Since it is a win-win-win situation, it favors Youtube, content creators and the advertising company. The one at loss is consumers. Yes, they did add a skip button so nobody accuses them that they are forcing ads on you. That 5-sec windows also give the advertisement company to attract your attention.
But whatever the case, We hate ads and here is how you can get rid of it.
How to get rid of Youtube Ads?
Earlier there wasn’t much we could do to help with youtube ads. Now, there are two ways to block an ad. You can either buy Youtube premium membership or you can external help such as an adblocker apk on your device.
1. Youtube Premium
Well, we all know that Youtube is a business, quite a successful one to be precise. But the profit rates decrease eventually. However, with a fanbase of 1.9 billion monthly users, Youtube has a lot of ways to get some gains. Following the trend, Youtube introduced a Youtube premium. It is basically Youtube’s only membership plan similar to amazon’s prime or Netflix membership. To be honest, this membership has pretty great features.
The one for us is No ads. Yes, anybody who has a Youtube premium can watch Youtube content without any type of ads. Other than that, Youtube premium also gives access to Youtube’s Web series featuring famous Youtube celebs, Youtube music that has every mp3 and mp4 music content on Youtube. You also get a feature called Background Play to run Youtube in the background and you can also download your content. All this for $9.99.
Wanna know more?
2. Youtube Ad Blockers
An Adblocker is a piece of software that basically blocks any type of ad or pop-up on your screen. Now Ad-blockers come in all shapes and sizes. They all have capabilities, offer different features and support different platforms. And if you really want an Ad-free Youtube experience you will have to use ad-blocker on all your devices you use Youtube on.
But, Is it legal, What if I got banned? Worry, not. It is totally legal to use adblocker as they don’t violate Youtube Terms and condition. However, some ad blockers also use circumvention technologies to bypass publishers’ defensive measures making them illegal. Well, the ad-blockers mentioned below are legal, so don’t worry about it.
Block YouTube Ads on Browsers
If you are someone who uses Youtube on their browser, then these ad-blockers are for you.
1. Adblock for Youtube – Chrome
As the name sounds, Adblock is an ad-blocker extension designed particularly for chrome and Chrome OS users. Downloaded over 5 million times, this adblocking software is quite capable. It uses a technology based on an adblocking filterlists which basically prevents any ad URLs and unwanted page elements from loading.
With Ad-block Youtube, you can block ads, banners, popups, stop preroll ads from loading and also removes annotations from videos and music. This software helps you load videos faster and also work for Youtube videos running on different sites. It is totally free of cost and can be added to chrome by a simple click.
2. Adblocker for Youtube- Firefox
Adblocker is a Firefox extension, similar to Adblock for the chrome. Unlike the chrome one, it is not so popular but offers similar functionalities. This adblocking software by Adblock Lite is also supported on androids if you use the Firefox browser. This software helps you remove unwanted ads from videos, stop pop-up windows and annotations from videos and music, load videos faster and it’s totally free and legal.
Stop–Ad is software for blocking ads on Macbook. This software offers free and paid ad-blocking features. But since we are only focusing on Safari, the free version is capable enough. Stop-ad lets you block, pop up, pop-unders, banner ads and the autoplay ones as well.
This software works for all-websites including Youtube and Social media sites. The best thing is that it is supported on all platforms. You can use stop-ad on your Macbook, ios, Windows, Android and FireOs devices. The paid version, Stop–ad pro offers web protection, live tracking and prevents your private information from getting stolen.
Best Youtube Ad blockers for Android
Well on Androids, adblocking works a bit different. Here, you can choose between software that blocks ads from your Youtube app, or consider using another application based on Youtube.
Ad-blocking apps
AdClear is an ad-filtering app developed by XDA developers. It is a non-root app that filters all your ads from your Youtube app. To do so, AdClear creates a VPN on your device and clears up the unwanted ad traffic which stops them from loading. This feature also helps Adclear to filter encrypted ads as well.
AdClear is totally free of cost and supports both browsers and applications.
Other similar apps are-
Youtube Alternatives
Youtube-Go is a free apk made after Youtube. It is basically the perfect alternative for Youtube. Youtube Go, not only looks like Youtube, but it also provides a similar user experience. But what makes it even better is the features it offers. Youtube Go has basically all the features you would get after buying Youtube Premium membership. It is 100% ad-free, it works in the background, you can download videos on different qualities and it runs without rooting.
Other similar apps are-
Best Ad blocker for ios
1. AdBlock
AdBlock is a modern adblocking solution for ios users. Adblock prevents you from unwanted ads on facebook, Youtube, Twitch and across the Web. It blocks online trackers, reduces data use by shutting down ads and increases page load speeds. Adblock works against all types of ads including pop-up ads, auto-play videos, and audio ads as well.
This app works on both iPhones and iPad which can be downloaded from the App Store totally free. You can also use Adblock on different other platforms like Android, Windows MacOS, etc.
Other similar apps are-
The Bottom Line
There you have it, folks. The best ad-blocking apps for different platforms. These apps will definitely prevent you from annoying ads and will also provide extra security. However, you need to understand that, these are only temporary solutions. Ads are not going to stop anytime soon.
Whether it’s Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, Google, Microsoft or a normal website with traffic, they will always feature ads. After all, selling ads covers the maximum percentage of the profit margin. And if you are a business person, you will understand it better then me.
So, if I were to suggest a solution, buy the premium membership. if Youtube really matters for you, buying Youtube Premium will help you in a lot of ways. The biggest advantage will be no ads on whichever platform you use Youtube on.
That being said, thanks for reading the article. I hope it was helpful to you.
And Yes, Do let me know what you think in the comment section.
