On android I use Revanced. It patches the official Youtube app (patches are open source) to greatly expand the base functionality and offer a lot more customization of the UI.
For me the best features are ad block, sponsorblock (skips in video sponsored segments), and complete excision of shorts from all aspects of the app.
It also works on Youtube Music, effectively allowing free premium (just don’t get the local downloads of your most listened tracks to help save data, but I have unlimited anyway).
I am honestly not against in-video sponsorships because it’s at least vetted by the creator and I can hold them accountable if they push garbage. Also it’s negotiated by them, not some trickle from google. At some point these folks need to get paid.
They get paid whether sponsored sections of the video are skipped or not though, which is the beauty of sponsorblock. Sometimes the sponsor sections are high effort though and worth watching.
Meh sometimes I see a thing I actually want to know about and nothing helps a creator more than using their affiliate links/codes. It’s how they keep getting good sponsors. Even better when I see them promoting something I was already interested in or currently use. It’s an easy way for me to give back to them without having to pay directly. Though I am also happy to sometimes just pay people I like.
There aren’t many products being sponsored through YouTube creators which are actually worth it imo. I mean, the best VPN providers don’t pay loads of money for ads. Same with many other products. Companies focused on mass ad campaigns often have expensive products which are not that great. I did see some which are actually pretty good, but most of it is just average at best.
But I also have a personal hate towards ads in general. We are being overloaded with ads wherever you look. I try to live as ad free as possible. I think sponsorblock is awesome, because the creator still gets payed as no one can see you skipped the promotion part. I also don’t like self promotion parts either. I don’t like begging for likes and subscriptions. If the video is good, it gets a like. If the creator is good, I’ll follow. If it’s really good, I’ll consider patreon. Many of the best creators do not beg for likes and only slightly mention patreon at the outro.
I understand creators need to do it, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t like it so sponsorblock is perfect as creators can continue doing it while I can auto skip. Before I had sponsorblock I never clicked any of the links because of what I mentioned before, so me skipping the parts doesn’t change anything for the creator.
Idk with podcasts in particular I usually hear one or two things a year I end up getting. That’s changing though now with the prevalence of dynamic insertion. It was better when each ad had to be done manually by the creators.
That’s fair, I hadn’t considered that people may actually want to click through on sponsored content to help the creator.
I really enjoy not having to see another ad for the usual sponsored brands ever again though (raid, vpns etc) .
I totally get it. I use freetube regularly, we are so saturated with advertisements the Internet is basically unusable with at least some level of ad blocker. I just don’t go out of my way to block the on-air reads for podcasts and YouTube. I used to do some on a podcast I produce so it felt weird and like I was pulling the ladder up behind me lol
On android I use Revanced. It patches the official Youtube app (patches are open source) to greatly expand the base functionality and offer a lot more customization of the UI.
For me the best features are ad block, sponsorblock (skips in video sponsored segments), and complete excision of shorts from all aspects of the app.
It also works on Youtube Music, effectively allowing free premium (just don’t get the local downloads of your most listened tracks to help save data, but I have unlimited anyway).
I am honestly not against in-video sponsorships because it’s at least vetted by the creator and I can hold them accountable if they push garbage. Also it’s negotiated by them, not some trickle from google. At some point these folks need to get paid.
They get paid whether sponsored sections of the video are skipped or not though, which is the beauty of sponsorblock. Sometimes the sponsor sections are high effort though and worth watching.
Meh sometimes I see a thing I actually want to know about and nothing helps a creator more than using their affiliate links/codes. It’s how they keep getting good sponsors. Even better when I see them promoting something I was already interested in or currently use. It’s an easy way for me to give back to them without having to pay directly. Though I am also happy to sometimes just pay people I like.
There aren’t many products being sponsored through YouTube creators which are actually worth it imo. I mean, the best VPN providers don’t pay loads of money for ads. Same with many other products. Companies focused on mass ad campaigns often have expensive products which are not that great. I did see some which are actually pretty good, but most of it is just average at best.
But I also have a personal hate towards ads in general. We are being overloaded with ads wherever you look. I try to live as ad free as possible. I think sponsorblock is awesome, because the creator still gets payed as no one can see you skipped the promotion part. I also don’t like self promotion parts either. I don’t like begging for likes and subscriptions. If the video is good, it gets a like. If the creator is good, I’ll follow. If it’s really good, I’ll consider patreon. Many of the best creators do not beg for likes and only slightly mention patreon at the outro.
I understand creators need to do it, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t like it so sponsorblock is perfect as creators can continue doing it while I can auto skip. Before I had sponsorblock I never clicked any of the links because of what I mentioned before, so me skipping the parts doesn’t change anything for the creator.
Idk with podcasts in particular I usually hear one or two things a year I end up getting. That’s changing though now with the prevalence of dynamic insertion. It was better when each ad had to be done manually by the creators.
That’s fair, I hadn’t considered that people may actually want to click through on sponsored content to help the creator. I really enjoy not having to see another ad for the usual sponsored brands ever again though (raid, vpns etc) .
I totally get it. I use freetube regularly, we are so saturated with advertisements the Internet is basically unusable with at least some level of ad blocker. I just don’t go out of my way to block the on-air reads for podcasts and YouTube. I used to do some on a podcast I produce so it felt weird and like I was pulling the ladder up behind me lol