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YouTube just made it harder to avoid ads with a tiny skip button
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this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2023
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They're completely lost at this point I think. The 'skip ad' button is brilliant from a marketing perspective, if you ask me. One can get pretty used to tuning out ads but having that skip button keeps you actively interacting. So even if you didn't see the whole ad, if the advertiser is smart you heard their name before you skipped. Plus the user gets to feel like the ad isn't shoved down their throat, they have control.
If I were running things I'd quit this dumb battle with the users they've declared and make ads extremely easy to skip - I feel like you'd have a lot fewer refugess from the site and a lot more people less motivated to install an ad blocker in the first place.
I have the god damn chromecast with the remote thing and it's totally bullshit, and handy! But mostly bullshit. I'm a mute nazi and mute every ad immediately to the point my wife makes fun of me. Although she does admit that it makes it more peaceful to watch. I'm wait to see how they enshittify it. I give it 3 months and then they pause ads if it's muted.
Get tourself smart tube. It's a million times better than the youtube tv app. I got a chromecast tv specifically so I could side load smart tube cause i was sick of the youtube app on my tv
That's seems more complex than I'm willing to attempt. I'll keep it in mind, thanks for the suggestion!
I don't remember it being that tricky, you just download the release from github and either put it on a usb to put into your Chromecast or send it from your phone via a myriad of apps and you just install it on your Chromecast like you would with your phone. You might have to enable developer mode but that's just as easy on a phone to by just pressing ok on the version number in the settings a few times
I just went through the steps and it seems like the menu no longer jives with the instructions. I'll keep poking away at it. I did unlock developer mode so, progress.
It's worth it. You only have to.install it once and then you can update it from inside itself. I have YouTube premium so ads don't pop anyway but sponsorblock awesome and the actual interface is better and doesn't completely change randomly for the worse like YouTube app does Everytime they get an amazing idea for how to make the UX worse.
Excellent. Good to hear. I'll keep trying!
If you get it to work, I'd also look into getting the button remapper app so you can make the YouTube button on your remote open up smart tube instead.
I also use it to map the double tap of Netflix to Disney+ and a hold to go to Amazon. It's pretty handy.
I didn't know that was a thing! Sounds like a worthwhile endeavor!
RESUME VIEWING. RESUME VIEWING.
Skip for: 700 merits
WRAITH BABES
Do yourself a favour and sideload Smarttubenext onto the chromecast. No more YouTube ads.
I'm sticking with the Chromecast 2. No remote, but also no bullshit. Just cast from your phone or computer and send whatever you want from there to your TV.
I kept mine and may go back to it. The remote one is only good because it let's my family watch from my account without buying the family plan. We also have it linked to a couple leach accounts.
No one is leaving YouTube because there is no alternative. You can go to a site like Vimeo, but no one uploads there. You can go to Nebula, but very few people want to pay for yet another subscription.
peertube
Unfortunately there is an alternative, pay them. But fuck that.
You could also pay the content creators that you enjoy watching directly. That way you can still have an ad free experience, mostly, while also supporting people making the things you like.
I do support a couple. Patreon doesn't let me cast, I have to click through to YT. Maybe if I got the patreon app? But fuck that too.