YouTube users who do not want to see ads have three main options until now: subscribe to YouTube Premium, use a content blocker, or a third-party app that does away with ads as well.
Most YouTube users would probably agree that there are too many ads on the site. This hurts the viewing experience and wastes a lot of time. Google is also finding new ways to show ads to users. Recently, it introduced pause ads on YouTube.
YouTube Premium Lite
Recently, Google has tested YouTube Premium Lite in select regions. Not available for everyone, the plan offers a cheaper subscription with limited functionality.
The main differences to YouTube Premium are that there are still some ads, notably on music videos, and that YouTube Music is not included. There are a couple of other restrictions. There is no option to download and play videos offline and no background play either.
Bloomberg reports today that Google plans to roll out YouTube Premium Lite in select regions. Means, anyone may subscribe to the new plan once it becomes available in a region.
YouTube Premium is available for $13.99 per month in the US currently. Pricing varies from region to region. The price of YouTube Premium Lite was about half of that during the test phase. Google has not yet announced the final price for the product. Since it is a subscription, you can be sure that it will be raised regularly.
YouTube Premium Lite will become available in select countries, including the United States, Germany, and Australia.
Who is it for? YouTube Premium Lite is for users who want an ad-free experience on YouTube, do not watch many music videos, do not need offline playback or background playback.
Yes, third-party apps like NewPipe offer all of this for free.
Now it is your turn. Is YouTube Premium Lite something that you would subscribe to? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
Pity New Pipe doesn’t work on Windows. No matter what advancements smartphones have you’re still stuck with a miniscule screen on which to watch videos. That spoils the whole experience IMHO. That and getting a crick in your neck from bending over to gaze at a smartphone screen for long periods. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/text-neck-syndrome#summary
The problem with all Google services (but not only) is that even if you subscribe for a paid plan you continue to get tracked. You may no longer have ads, or have less ads, but you are still tracked. My concern is not that of paying (when the ratio price/benefit is acceptable) but tracking. Google and others of the GAFAM, especially critic given their presence is everywhere, are a main nod of tracking, and I dislike that. Even with cookies, cache, storage cleaned up, fingerprinting remains an everlasting issue. So I avoid quite substantially these places. Concerning YouTube specifically I view its videos embedded, its channels (only its channels) via a Piped instance and if I need a video’s description I send the video’s url to a video parser.