YouTube’s fight against ad blockers is entering the next round. After the video platform has already taken on the providers of corresponding browser extensions, the focus is now on third-party apps for smartphones.
Image: Canva
Such third-party apps often offer features that you would otherwise only get with YouTube’s paid premium membership. For example, a download function, the ability to play videos in the background or the aforementioned freedom from advertising. This is of course a thorn in the side of the video platform.
The actions of these apps violate YouTube’s terms of use and they obviously don’t want to put up with that anymore. It has now been announced in a new blog post that they want to take more action against this in the future. “If we find an app that violates these terms, we will take appropriate action to protect our platform, creators and viewers,” YouTube said. With noticeable consequences for users.
The announcement continues: “Viewers using these third-party apps may experience issues with buffering or see an error message “The following content is not available for this app” when attempting to watch a video.”
Third-party apps are only granted access to your own API if they adhere to the associated conditions. We understand that some people prefer an ad-free experience on YouTube, but that’s exactly what the premium subscription is for. YouTube Premium costs 12.99 euros per month.
What: YouTube