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:
Hard pass. I donate to good creators who provide me hours of content by buying them a coffee or supporting on Patreon.
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Ah, so pay for premium to support creators, but if you support creators in another way then that’s bad because… reasons.
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YouTube can burn.
They generate more money than whole countries and you want to give them more? I don’t have to pay them shit for them to make money off of me from my browsing history alone.
I would rather speed forward the enshittification to the point that all creators decide to strike and hop over collectively to another, kinder, video hosting site.
In the meantime Google benefits from my viewing data/history and sells that over and over. They’re making money hand over fist and then when you pay them for a “premium” experience you’re just handing them more. You’re already a cash cow for them with just using the site. Screw that noise.
Give directly to the creator.