Just install Firefox and Ublock Origin already, seriously its not difficult.
Doesn't work for Twitch ads though.
Twitch is really clever about it.
Because you're watching a live stream, they know you're less likely to pause or look away, and then because they're using HLS, they just literally have the next chunk of video load from their ad servers instead of their video servers.
The most clever part? This is done at a point before your computer, so you can't distinguish which is which as to you, it all looks like its coming from the same source.
Now, perhaps they still give you some information about the stream that they're in a game of wackamole with block detectors over, maybe for tracking purposes or whatever, but its pretty clever, like dastardly clever but clever none the less.
In my experience, using Streamlink will still give you an ad break, but it will just be a screen saying it's an ad break without any actual ads
The 0 second skippable ad:
Me using uBlock Origin and Firefox so they don't win:
Me, just using (re)vanced for 10 years and not seeing a single youtube ad in that time.
Who, in 2025, doesn't either use a PiHole, adblocker in browser, and/or just mute and change out the window while the ad is playing?? It's crazy people still voluntarily want to be exposed to consumerist propaganda.
Most people, actually. Crazy, i agree.
Ads make me boycott products. Unfortunately I'm still a consumer because I use Ublock Origin and Firefox...
I accidentally fired up YT on my unused (and non-ublocked) Vivaldi browser a few days ago and... holy crap.
I don't see how people can actually stand that shit.
One of my coworkers uses youtube without any adblockers. I've tried convincing him, even showing him how to install one.
He says "too much effort".
I don't bother anymore.
The worst part about youtube is that it TRIES TO LIE TO YOU by suggesting that ANY AND I MEAN ANY problem is due to your adblock (its not) it literally puts a little shitty caption that thanks god gets swatted with the fury of a thousand gaping black holes by UBLOCK ORIGIN GET IT DOWNLOAD IT SPREAD ITS SHINING SUN LIKE GLORY
Youtube put in an ad-blocker-blocker so UBlock Origin made an ad-blocker-blocker-blocker.
At one point, Google toyed with activating the front-facing camera during ads. They were going to detect that you were watching the ad to make it count.
I suspect they're still using it as a tracking mechanism. No reason not to collect this kind of data if you can.
Just turn the device off. They don't have customer support, but they sure as fuck have metrics. At the start of the ad, turn the device completely off.
Ultimate ad-blocker: touch grass.
Oh, don't worry. They've made sure to plaster ads everywhere outdoors too. Bus stops and the buses themselves, billboards, walls, everywhere you look there's likely an ad somewhere. It'll only get worse.
There are analog ad-blockers but they take some time to set up. You need spraypaint, a hammer, wheatpaste, posters of your own, possibly even a ladder.
Queue insufferable comments…
just install the insufferable comment blocker
This is my favorite comment on the internet
Pot and kettle
4 of the 5 top level comments basically saying the same thing. It’s a circlejerk at best.
It's a constant war between adblockers, the browser, and youTube at this point. This morning once again youTube started lagging and stuttering in one browser, turn off adblocker, the lag is gone.
I put my fingers in my ears, close the eyes and go "allallallalaala".
Stubbornness is a feature, not a bug.
I hit mute and find something else to do, often I forget about the original video I was trying to watch anyway.
TBH these days when I get a Youtube link, unless it seems important, I just ignore it. I don't have time for 2 ads every time a friend thinks I should see some stupid thing.
Just... use an adblocker...
Ublock Origin for desktops, RVX for Android phones, SmartTube for AndroidTVs.
You can setup each one in two minutes following the instructions on the download pages.
Every time I make the mistake of clicking on a YouTube video I exit the second an ad comes up. And remember: oh yeah. This is why I don't go to fucking YouTube.
The current state of YouTube.
I need to know what they are advertising so I can make a mental note not to buy that thing ever
Mentally condition yourself to react to ads in the opposite way. Electroshock therapy, if it comes to it.
This comment section is so Lemmy
The only thing I can’t skip/block seems to be Twitch, but I concentrate on the adverts, I study them, log them, consume them, so I can funnel all my energy into hating the brand. I’m never buying a Renault, watching Chainsaw man, and this year I’m cancelling Prime because they have interrupted my day.
The only reliable method for twitch that I've found is just VPN-ing it to a random country like Bulgaria or another region where they don't serve ads. IIUC that's basically how many twitch ad blockers work, by loading the stream playlist through a vpn. Tunneling the whole app is a lot easier and works just as well for me.
I literally cover my face with my hand and only leave a gap in my fingers where the skip button is. I'm not watching youtubes AI filth commercials. They are super cringe and ROUGH AI.
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