YouTube Vanced will be shutting down, after legal threat. The popular app is being discontinued after years of being available on the Android platform. Released first in 2018, YouTube Vanced is a sideloadable Android app that allows users to block ads, skip sponsored content, use a dark theme layout, and other useful tweaks, including bringing back the recently removed dislike button, bypassing the need for YouTube Premium. That combined with its popularity is likely why Google went after the project, serving them with a cease and desist. The Vanced team announced that due to "legal reasons", they'll be removing links to download the app from their website, and work on the project will be discontinued.

Existing installs of YouTube Vanced should still work for the foreseeable future, until Google makes significant changes to YouTube that would render the app useless.

Vanced has been discontinued. In the coming days, the download links on the website will be taken down. We know this is not something you wanted to hear but it's something we need to do. Thank you all for supporting us over the years.

— Vanced Official (@YTVanced) March 13, 2022

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[The Real Jdbye]

Any time something gets taken down or abandoned 2 new options pop up, so I'm sure somebody will make a replacement to Vanced. But I really liked all the extra features Vanced offered (especially with the inclusion of Sponsorblock and Return YouTube Dislike) and I'm afraid the replacement might not offer the same feature set.
Background playback isn't something I personally used very much, since I rarely listen to music on YouTube, though it was useful for podcasts. But I could live without that. PIP I found kind of useless on my phone since the video is so tiny. Those features along with ad blocking would probably be the first to get added to a replacement Vanced though, since they're features that already exist in the app if you have YouTube Premium. Unique features might be less likely to get added though.

 

[Tsukiru]

Any time something gets taken down or abandoned 2 new options pop up, so I'm sure somebody will make a replacement to Vanced. But I really liked all the extra features Vanced offered (especially with the inclusion of Sponsorblock and Return YouTube Dislike) and I'm afraid the replacement might not offer the same feature set.
Background playback isn't something I personally used very much, since I rarely listen to music on YouTube, though it was useful for podcasts. But I could live without that. PIP I found kind of useless on my phone since the video is so tiny. Those features along with ad blocking would probably be the first to get added to a replacement Vanced though, since they're features that already exist in the app if you have YouTube Premium. Unique features might be less likely to get added though.

I used background play at night whenever I procrastinated sleep. It's better than having a block of my screen taken by Picture-in-picture.

 

[VinsCool]

Honestly I am not too worried about this.
The latest version will definitely keep being functional for a while, so let's assume it can still be used for at least another year, I think that's not a terrible fate, if there is an alternative that comes around the corner in the meantime.
Heck, I have a old Android tablet with the latest available Youtube app that could run on it, from I think 2016? and it does work perfectly fine still.
So whatever happens, it's most likely it will still work for a good amount of time, until Google goes and make really big API changes, which is likely not going to happen unless they want to break nearly 100% of every Youtube apps out there.

 

[SMNFXCN]

i keep seeing people (not anyone in particular, mainly people online elsewhere) reduce the app down to an ad block when it had more than that, and you get the typical "well google was well within their rights to c&d"...no shit
i could cope with ads but i need sponsorblock, RYD and amoled

 

[ELY_M]

I finally found address of that stupid google office in my town. but no body is there.

 

[ELY_M]

I fucking hate greedy companies.

 

[weatMod]

Ads are the worst

every time I am served an ad I am sure to write down the name of the product and add it to my "things never to buy list"
same goes for anything promoted on a certain Canadian tech youtubers channel
that came out and tried to shill the idea that that ad block=illegal piracy
just purely coincidentally right before Google decided to do this.

 

[weatMod]

Honestly I am not too worried about this.
The latest version will definitely keep being functional for a while, so let's assume it can still be used for at least another year, I think that's not a terrible fate, if there is an alternative that comes around the corner in the meantime.
Heck, I have a old Android tablet with the latest available Youtube app that could run on it, from I think 2016? and it does work perfectly fine still.
So whatever happens, it's most likely it will still work for a good amount of time, until Google goes and make really big API changes, which is likely not going to happen unless they want to break nearly 100% of every Youtube apps out there.

it's sad because they finally got their shit together with the updated installer app
for a while there was a big problem with updating and micro G
I had not been able to sign in on a some of tables for a while , a while back before they revamped their updated installer app

 

[bonkmaykr]

"oh this is good. now content creators are going to receive more without ad blockers in their way"

before post something like my example above, know that google actualy is retaining 40% of the creators per user subscription to a channel. 40 f*ck1ng %. so please, don't.

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im not using vanced for like 8 months by now. my smartphone has this weird problem with battery ( random shutting down) so i am watching youtube on my pc (with ad blocks) or on my amazon fire stick ( smartTubeNext, pared with my account via code) no ads, no bs.

​

Advertisers blackmail Youtube into censoring creators by not paying them if they say anything remotely objectionable. Even if they were getting paid, they have to sacrifice an arm and a leg for it, and on top of that they don't get much money from it to begin with even if they didn't take away 40%. Youtube is a nightmare to use as your sole revenue stream and I highly advise any fellow Youtubers reading this thread to STAY AWAY FROM MONETIZATION. I plan to never monetize my channel without extreme caution first, Youtube will go out of their way to bury your channel if it does not make them the money they want it to make once you register for the monetization program. You're better off not participating in it at all, because you're sacrificing your channel's success for the chance to earn mere pennies if you're lucky.

Youtube has gotten so desperate for money (which they don't need by the way because their parent company has near infinite advertising revenue from running AdSense on other websites) that they silently changed the rules and started putting ads on videos that aren't even monetized at all, on smaller channels even, whether there is a ContentID claim or not.

Ads on Youtube are a fucking joke and need to be outright deleted off the platform. They benefit absolutely nobody. Vanced was a blessing to all of us.

ever time I am served an ad I am sure to write down the name of the product and add it to my "things never to buy list"
same goes for anything promoted on a certain Canadian tech youtubers channel
that came out and tried to shill the idea that that ad block=illegal piracy
just purely coincidentally right before Google decided to do this.

I don't remember mutahar doing that, what video was it from?

 

[SMNFXCN]

I don't remember mutahar doing that, what video was it from?

it was LTT

 

[codezer0]

I don't remember mutahar doing that, what video was it from?

He was referring to Linus Tech Tips; alias:

• "Mister made a video bragging about upgrading to 10Gbit Internet when most of his viewers can't even commit enough felonies to get 1GBit service at any price"
• Virtue signals by ranting about nvidia shadow-banning Hardware Unboxed, even though he already uploaded about four sponsored videos the same day said rant went on the air
• Mister "optical drives? what is this, 2005?"
• Mister Unironically drops 20% off their review scores for hardware that isn't festooned with more RGB than a literal pride parade
• The same doofus that "built" an anti-RGB pc by taking the previously made "all the rgb" build and plasti-dipping it all hap-hazardly then acts dumb about why oh why doesn't it work anymore

Even with all that aside, the dude claims to be old (with the beard), but still has a voice that sounds like taking orders from him should instantly set off amber alerts within a fifty mile radius, like he used speedrun glitches to skip puberty or something.

 

[bonkmaykr]

He was referring to Linus Tech Tips; alias:

• "Mister made a video bragging about upgrading to 10Gbit Internet when most of his viewers can't even commit enough felonies to get 1GBit service at any price"
• Virtue signals by ranting about nvidia shadow-banning Hardware Unboxed, even though he already uploaded about four sponsored videos the same day said rant went on the air
• Mister "optical drives? what is this, 2005?"
• Mister Unironically drops 20% off their review scores for hardware that isn't festooned with more RGB than a literal pride parade
• The same doofus that "built" an anti-RGB pc by taking the previously made "all the rgb" build and plasti-dipping it all hap-hazardly then acts dumb about why oh why doesn't it work anymore

Even with all that aside, the dude claims to be old (with the beard), but still has a voice that sounds like taking orders from him should instantly set off amber alerts within a fifty mile radius, like he used speedrun glitches to skip puberty or something.

Oh yeah, I remember watching a response to that video. Forgot LTT was Canadian for a moment, that's why I was confused.

Linus isn't really that intelligent.
>doesn't like Linux for reasons that aren't really valid
>constantly fucks up
>repeats the same information that is already common knowledge online
>does not really understand computer history very much

This guy isn't a computer nerd, he's a gamer. A gamer who likes benchmarking, and thinks he's smart because he can look at FPS bar graphs and charts generated by a program he double clicked on.

I don't totally hate the guy. But it's not really surprising he would shill for Google when he clearly doesn't understand enough about the internet, nor computers in general, to see how YouTube is stepping on our freedoms.

Who's the fat guy with a beard that helps him out in some of his videos and constantly makes Linus look like a child by comparison by providing more educated explanations and holding his hand? Props to him for putting up with all that.

Anyway, making fun of LTT aside... Here's an idea, why don't the patches used to make Vanced be released again and used to patch the official YouTube app obtained by the user legally? SNES ROM hackers have been doing this for ages to work around DMCA's, and Aliucord does this for Android. Vanced itself isn't illegal, it's only part of a copyright violation because it's distributed pre-patched with Google's proprietary binaries included. If they just gave us the instructions to make Vanced ourselves, Google's lawyers can't do anything.

Worst case scenario they try to pull a DRM bypass card like they did with youtube-dl, but Vanced hardly falls under that definition if at all so I'm not sure how that will work out for them. It's a stupid law anyway, but I couldn't expect much better from the USA. Old people are not very good with copyright laws and the DMCA has some very annoying rules that don't make a whole lot of sense.

 

[Jayro]

Hopefully Vanced will be continued, but just dropping Google's code. There are plenty of other Youtube apps to piggyback off of and build upon to achieve the same goal.

 

[KennyAtom]

honestly this was a long time coming.

when you take away ad money from google with their own apps, just barely edited, they're coming for your ass.

 

[Glyptofane]

Hopefully Vanced will be continued, but just dropping Google's code. There are plenty of other Youtube apps to piggyback off of and build upon to achieve the same goal.

I'll be rocking Vanced as long as it still functions.

Also may be worth keeping an eye on this:
https://github.com/revanced

 

[ShadowOne333]

Has there been any new advancements in the last couple of months towards a proper Vanced substitute?
I made a list of alternate options to Vanced here:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/google-...to-be-discontinued.609231/page-5#post-9774700

But honestly, the biggest feature none of them have is the ability to sign in to YouTube, since I do have my whole lot of subscriptions and other stuff.
That's what I'm looking for mostly.

 

[WillieHamilton]

If i can't block ads on Youtube, i'll leave Youtube forever
Best Platform for MOD APKs & Premium Apps. All is free. Search "modded apk techzapk" on Google and enjoy.

 

[Marc_LFD]

If i can't block ads on Youtube, i'll leave Youtube forever

As of today, I'm still using YouTube Vanced + YouTube Music Vanced, but there'll be and are other options already.

On PC, you can just use browser add-ons to block ads/sponsors.

 

[CeeDee]

doesn't Firefox on Android support plugins? could always get uBlock Origin there

 

[Xzi]

doesn't Firefox on Android support plugins? could always get uBlock Origin there

That's the only way I visit Youtube, on PC and mobile. Works like a charm, and thank god because the number of TikTok ads is unbearable on the official app. You'd think Google owns it.