I do totally get paying to support something you use a ton.
But I don’t get comments like this calling blocking ads a cat and mouse game. It’s always been incredibly easy to block ads on the devices I own and I rarely ever have to mess with anything after installing a single browser extension or a single app.
On my desktop/laptop–ublock origin. I would install this regardless of whether or not I care about YouTube ads because ads on websites in general can be pretty cancerous. So I would already have it on my device to begin with. Install one extension and forget about it. Very occasionally ads start coming through, but then the extension auto updates itself and I don’t have to worry about it. It’s effortless and I absolutely never need to mess with the settings.
On my phone–YouTube ReVanced. Just basically download I think two APK files and you’re set. I’ve had to reinstall this a single time over the maybe decade(?) I’ve been using it as YouTube had some sort of breaking update or something. But having to install it again once every many years is hardly an inconvenience. Oh I guess I have had to install it again when I’ve gotten a new phone, but that’s really not that odd or inconvenient to me either…and generally I don’t get a new phone that often.
On my android TV device–SmartTube Next. It’s a single APK file. Set it and forget it. I’ve never had to reinstall the app.
One caveat with this is that it seems harder to watch YouTube ad free (without paying for premium) on Apple devices. So if you use a lot of Apple products it also makes sense.
Ya, all you have to do is install something different on every device you own/watch YouTube on.
You also, have to be technical enough to side load, or compile revanced etc… I’ve heard over and over that ubo keeps having updates/changes to keep yt ads down.
I actually am technical enough to do those things, but both doing and managing these various apps across multiple devices in my house is a lot of work. Or, I can just pay for the music and TV I watch.
For the record, I also have and paid for GrayJay app on my phone and do also use it on occasion. We have used smart tube TV in the past because when my son was younger Google had shit parental controls and we couldn’t allow his child account to access regular yt (restricted). I’ve got it side loaded on both our Nvidia shield and gtv devices. Too bad it doesn’t work on android TV, or my wife/sons iPhones.
