YouTube ads continued to get worse. Not only have we seen hour-long unskippable ads appear on the website in the past, but the service has also served YouTube unskippable ads on TVs, making it almost impossible to avoid them, even in your living room. The consensus for many is that you should purchase YouTube Premium to avoid watching a ton of ads. However, DuckDuckGo offers another solution.
Starting today, DuckDuckGo says its browser will now block video ads like those found on YouTube by default on iOS, Windows, and macOS. The privacy-based company says it plans to bring this feature to Android browsers as well. In fact, it’s already available, you just need to activate it yourself. The feature relies on community filter lists from uBlock Origin. Since these lists are community-driven, they are regularly updated to help catch any new systems that Google and YouTube might be playing with.
The big caveat, of course, is that you’ll need to make sure you open YouTube links in the DuckDuckGo browser on mobile to take full advantage of the feature. It will not block ads in the YouTube app itself. Additionally, DuckDuckGo says you can easily turn it off at any time, even in the middle of a video, if you have any issues using this feature. To do this, simply tap the video icon next to the green shield in the address bar, or tap the menu button on mobile and select Disable YouTube ad blocking. If you disable the feature in the middle of the video, the browser will detect this and ask you to send an error report to help resolve any issues.
Android users are not left out
Although Android users don’t have the option to block YouTube ads on videos by default, the company says that enabling this option is extremely simple. All you need to do is open DuckDuckGo browser on Android and then go to Settings > Announcement Blocking and enable the option for YouTube. If you don’t see the feature right away, you need to make sure your app is up to date through the Google Play Store. DuckDuckGo says it plans to enable the feature by default for Android soon, although a release date for the feature has not yet been shared.
Due to YouTube’s continued struggle with ad blocking and its desire to move more users to YouTube Premium with the introduction of new features and even new plan options like YouTube Premium Lite, users who don’t want to pay – or who can’t – may find that watching YouTube with ad blocking in DuckDuckGo is a solid option instead. Just be aware that YouTube may make changes at any time that completely nullify the benefits of these features.
