Technology YouTube: Enforcement on Third Party Apps

nicolaasjan

Level 5
Thread author
Verified
Well-known
May 29, 2023
210
Hi everyone,

We’re strengthening our enforcement on third-party apps that violate YouTube’s Terms of Service, specifically ad-blocking apps.

Viewers who are using these third-party apps may experience buffering issues or see the error “The following content is not available on this app” when trying to watch a video. We want to emphasize that our terms don’t allow third-party apps to turn off ads because that prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership, and Ads on YouTube help support creators and let billions of people around the world use the streaming service. We also understand that some people prefer an entirely ad-free experience, which is why we offer YouTube Premium.

We only allow third-party apps to use our API when they follow our API Services Terms of Service, and when we find an app that violates these terms, we will take appropriate action to protect our platform, creators, and viewers.

  • Rob, TeamYouTube
We'll have to wait and see if the uBO team can counter this.
 
F

ForgottenSeer 107474

@nicolaasjan thanks for sharing

Google is talking about using our API and third-party apps. I am not sure but to me it looks more directed against third-party apps showing youtube content without tracking and ads (e.g. freetube, libretube and piped etc). I just checked AdGuard using uBO's block rules (scriptlets) for youtube and did not noticed any stutter (nor ads).
 

uninfected1

Level 11
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Jan 28, 2016
529
Looks like this could finally be the end for 3rd party YouTube apps. Smart Tube was working fine until yesterday but I now get a 403 error message on all videos, and New Pipe doesn't work either.
 

HarborFront

Level 72
Verified
Top Poster
Content Creator
Oct 9, 2016
6,134
Last few days I noticed Adguard Browser Assistant not working (greyed out) for my browsers.

When I watch YT it blocked the video because of my other adblocker extensions. In short, I can't watch videos on YT.

So I converted by watching YT videos using FreeTube for Windows with Privacy Redirect extension. FI, there's also a FreeTube for android like Newpipe
 
Last edited:
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nickstar1

Level 9
Verified
Well-known
Dec 10, 2022
400
Last few days I noticed Adguard Browser Assistant not working (greyed out) for my browsers.

When I watch YT it blocked my other adblocker extensions. In short, I can't watch videos on YT.

So I converted by watching YT videos using FreeTube for Windows with Privacy Redirect extension. FI, there's also a FreeTube for android like Newpipe
Use the app not the extension it's system based and not browser based.
 

rashmi

Level 11
Jan 15, 2024
536
Looks like this could finally be the end for 3rd party YouTube apps. Smart Tube was working fine until yesterday but I now get a 403 error message on all videos, and New Pipe doesn't work either.
The developer released updates that fixed the SmartTube issue.
 

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