YouTube is a popular destination for all things video. It is a Google-owned property and video ads are common on the platform. One of the main issues for many users is that advertisement has become annoying on YouTube lately.
Probably the most annoying type is the mid-video ad, as it interrupts the video. There are other types, including multiple unskippable ads before videos or after videos.
Lately, Google started to block videos from playing if it detected the use of an ad blocker. Not all YouTube visitors face this, but tests are conducted. These tests have grown in intensity up to the point to locking out users if they continue to use ad-blockers.
It is possible to bypass YouTube video ads without use of a traditional ad blocker. Probably the easiest way is to subscribe to YouTube Premium, but this is not what this guide is about.
Below, you find different suggestions to watch YouTube videos without ads and traditional content blocker.
YouTube Frontends
One of the better options is to redirect YouTube videos to frontends. You can do that manually, often by simply editing the URL of the video, or automatically.
I reviewed LibRedirect and Privacy Redirects on Ghacks. These browser extensions redirect YouTube videos to privacy friendly frontends. All frontends come without ads or privacy-invasive features.
Invidious is a popular frontend that many extensions use. A list of domains is available here. Note that you may need to adjust the default frontends in the extensions with working ones.
Take yewtu.be as an example. Open it and you get a basic search interface. You may use it to find any YouTube video and play it. To use it manually, simply replace youtube.com with yewtu.be and keep the rest of the address the same.
The extensions do the heavy lifting for you, so that you don’t have to edit domain names manually each time.
You bypass YouTube video ads automatically when you use the frontends.
There are some downsides, especially for users who sign-in. You can’t access your channel subscriptions, vote on videos or do other activities that require an account.
Other frontends are available. Here is a short list of options:
A full list is available on GitHub.
Third-party YouTube apps
YouTube frontends work in all modern browsers, including on mobile devices. Some may prefer to run apps and it may sometimes be the only option.
A popular app for Android is NewPipe. It is an open source app that supports a wide range of features. The app pulls data from the official API, internal APIs or the official website, depending on the level of restrictions.
NewPipe supports video resolutions up to 4K and live streams. It can be used to play audio in the background, search for videos on YouTube, enqueue videos and even subscribe to channels.
Other options include downloading videos for offline viewing, watching playlists or browsing channel feeds.
Another app option is SmartTubeNext, which works well on Android TVs and Fire TV devices. It is open source and brings YouTube to the television.
Other alternatives are:
Bypass YouTube video ads by skipping them
Fadblock is a browser extension for Google Chrome, Firefox and other Chromium-based browsers. I reviewed it today on Ghacks.
Note: the developer of the extension has turned it into a commercial one.
Instead of blocking YouTube ads, it is loading and skipping them. This happens quickly and automatically. In other words: ads may be displayed for a fraction of a second before the actual video starts to play.
It is not an adblocker, as it does not block YouTube ads outright. Ads get loaded but skipped or fast forwarded immediately.
It is an interesting concept, one that is likely better protected against anti-adblocking techniques on YouTube.