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Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

vancedapp.com

121–130 of 360 posts

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#121
post #8

Vanced is pretty good. It seems like it's just the official YouTube app but with premium for free. Newpipe is another ad-free YouTube app. https://newpipe.net/ It's FOSS and doesn't use your Google account, or any of the YouTube APIs. You can still manage subscriptions but you have to import them manually.

Unfortunately it's very buggy and still not ready for full time use. Crashes all the time, importing subscriptions is hard. But it's FOSS and I still use it regardless cause vanced concerns me because it needs access to my account

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#122

Asking this question in good faith and in the interest of a productive discussion: Can someone give me their reasoning for why to use this over just paying for YouTube premium? They're providing a service that you value and spend enough time on to warrant looking for a way to not have to view ads, and if everyone were to start using Vanced overnight, YouTube wouldn't be able to justify staying up indefinitely. It fee…

I am already paying google enough with my personal information. They will not extract more value from me without putting at least a fight. I completely understand why people would pay, especially if there is no other option to not get ads, but I don't want to pay Google any cents for a service they would be happy to provide for free for influence. It has negative externalities (Google "lose" money and free video is... un-impacted in the long run) but I value those infinitely less than my attention span.

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#123
post #8

Vanced is pretty good. It seems like it's just the official YouTube app but with premium for free. Newpipe is another ad-free YouTube app. https://newpipe.net/ It's FOSS and doesn't use your Google account, or any of the YouTube APIs. You can still manage subscriptions but you have to import them manually.

I used to use Newpipe, but I realized that I couldn't port my YT playlists (how I keep track of music) to it. Vanced lets me log into my YT account so all of my playlists were available right off the bat.

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#124

Asking this question in good faith and in the interest of a productive discussion: Can someone give me their reasoning for why to use this over just paying for YouTube premium? They're providing a service that you value and spend enough time on to warrant looking for a way to not have to view ads, and if everyone were to start using Vanced overnight, YouTube wouldn't be able to justify staying up indefinitely. It fee…

Because Google regards us as a resource to be exploited and we're just returning the favor? Class warfare really sucks when you're on the wrong end of it, huh?

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#125

Asking this question in good faith and in the interest of a productive discussion: Can someone give me their reasoning for why to use this over just paying for YouTube premium? They're providing a service that you value and spend enough time on to warrant looking for a way to not have to view ads, and if everyone were to start using Vanced overnight, YouTube wouldn't be able to justify staying up indefinitely. It fee…

I'm doing everything in my power to not give any money to GOOG/MS/AAPL. I would not shed a tear for YT in it's current state if it were to shut down because of revenue problems.

A more effective way would be to just boycott YouTube. Rather than block ads, block their domain on all your devices.

Increasing a video view count entices the video producer to create more. More content = more views from users who see ads.

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#126

Asking this question in good faith and in the interest of a productive discussion: Can someone give me their reasoning for why to use this over just paying for YouTube premium? They're providing a service that you value and spend enough time on to warrant looking for a way to not have to view ads, and if everyone were to start using Vanced overnight, YouTube wouldn't be able to justify staying up indefinitely. It fee…

> if everyone were to start using Vanced overnight, YouTube wouldn't be able to justify staying up indefinitely. I personally find categorical imperative arguments to be ridiculous. almost anything could be bad if everyone did them all the time. the reality is that adblocking, torrenting, and similar workarounds are used by a small subset of technically savvy users. most people just don't care enough to configure any…

> I don't feel any obligation to allow Google to use my own device and internet connection to serve me ad content that I don't wish to see.

That's disingenuous because you're omitting the other half of the transaction: You are choosing, voluntarily, to consume the content that they are offering on their website. The implied arrangement is that you watch the ads (at least the first five seconds until the skip button appears) in exchange for them doing all the work of collecting, hosting, and delivering that content to you.

Now obviously the financial value involved is de minimis in the case of a YouTube video, but nevertheless you're taking service and declining the payment.

The actual offense is so vanishingly small that they basically don't care enough to do anything about it, but let's be honest about what's really happening here. They're not just sending ads to you for no reason without your consent.

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#127
post #122

Asking this question in good faith and in the interest of a productive discussion: Can someone give me their reasoning for why to use this over just paying for YouTube premium? They're providing a service that you value and spend enough time on to warrant looking for a way to not have to view ads, and if everyone were to start using Vanced overnight, YouTube wouldn't be able to justify staying up indefinitely. It fee…

I am already paying google enough with my personal information. They will not extract more value from me without putting at least a fight. I completely understand why people would pay, especially if there is no other option to not get ads, but I don't want to pay Google any cents for a service they would be happy to provide for free for influence. It has negative externalities (Google "lose" money and free video is..…

If you don't view any ads, Google doesn't make any money off your personal information. Essentially all data collecting only exists to tailor specific ads to people they think will find them relevant so they can justify charging more for them.

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel content on the internet was free for so long, people just feel entitled to it. Now everyone is anti-ad, with most not being able to support an argument as to why targeted ads are bad (like any human at Google cares how user 1839028934 watches vtubers for 8 hours a day), but they still feel entitled to consume content for free.

> "They're still entitled to consume content for free." YouTube et al. are free. That's the whole point! The only reason anyone uses them is because they are free, as in free beer. If I crack open an incognito tab and go to YouTube, they serve me a page of videos, I click on one, and it starts playing. I didn't agree to anything, I never said "oh, but I agree I'll watch the ads/let the ads play/download the ads" in o…

Worth pointing out that there would be no place selling pizza anymore. Why buy one when you can eat (and read) for free?! It wouldn't be a bright world, but the web nowadays isn't bright. Man it makes me sad.

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if everyone were to start using Vanced overnight, YouTube wouldn't be able to justify staying up indefinitely. I personally find categorical imperative arguments to be ridiculous. almost anything could be bad if everyone did them all the time. the reality is that adblocking, torrenting, and similar workarounds are used by a small subset of technically savvy users. most people just don't care enough to configure any…

This used to be true, but now that 30-40% of the web audience uses adblockers, a wake-up call is imminent.

The wake-up call should be directed towards ad creators, not viewers. Ads slow down pages, clutter content, potentially inject malware, negatively emotionally manipulate the viewer, etc. I pay for two sites that I use daily so I don't see ads. Every single ad-serving site should have this option. My only fear is that Facebook, Twitter, et. al. cannot survive on a subscription amount alone. Our data and ad viewing is just too lucrative for them to stop.
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