Google warns users of these apps that their experience may deteriorate soon. They may “experience buffering issues” or see errors such as “the following content is not available on this app” when trying to watch videos.
Similar to Google Search, ads have become insufferable for many users of the service. There are too many of them, they may break the viewing experience, and they may show inappropriate content.
YouTube Premium is expensive. What weights more for some users is that its functionality is severely limited when compared to third-party apps.
The cat and mouse game continues.
For those looking to avoid ads or improve privacy, here are some options for free, open source, privacy-friendly frontends to YouTube without advertisements:
I was simply explaining why I’m bailing on them.
Google graveyard has happened. YT makes them a lot of money, so it’s not likely destined there. But, like search, they will eventually make it more about $ extraction than value for the customer.
It hasn’t happened yet. Early adopters and early leavers shape things.
Ads don’t support YouTube. Actually if you have premium that does a better job supporting both YouTube and the creators because they get paid more per view with premium than they would with ads. That’s why google pushes premium so hard and is bundling it with the services it thinks it can get away with.
What you’re describing has basically already happened and the ads are getting worse because they just don’t provide enough income.