YouTube is cracking down on ad-blocking applications to boost its ad revenue. The company has been taking strict measures to combat the use of such applications and has limited the ability to watch videos for users who use ad-blocking extensions on browsers since last year. Now, it is expanding its campaign to third-party applications that allow users to watch YouTube videos without ads. Google, which owns YouTube, warns that users attempting to access YouTube videos through third-party applications may experience video performance issues or error messages.
Google claims to only allow developers to use the official YouTube API as long as they comply with its terms of service, which prohibit third-party apps from blocking ads. Therefore, it warns that it will take appropriate actions against violating applications, but it has not specified what these measures include.
As an alternative, Google suggests users can watch videos for free but must accept ads or subscribe to YouTube Premium for a completely ad-free video viewing experience. This move may upset some users who do not want to pay extra for YouTube Premium, but it is a crucial source of revenue for the company.