Vanced, a popular app that bypasses ads on YouTube, is set to shut down due to “legal reasons”. In The Verge’s report, the developers behind Vanced said that they will shut down the project and will remove all download links to the app. In its response to The Verge, the developers of Vance did not explicitly say if they received a legal threat from Google.
While those who currently have the app on their Android phone can still use it, the team behind Vanced said that it will not roll out any updates in the future—rendering the app to be unusable at one point.
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
Aside from being able to block ads without a YouTube Premium subscription, Vanced offered a true dark theme and various customizations that are not offered in the official YouTube app.
This development appears to be Google discouraging privacy and other ad-blocking measures—and wants all of its users to subscribe to YouTube Premium to eliminate ads.
Here are some alternatives to Vanced: https://t.co/wSfFoYlcfY
— Vanced Official (@YTVanced) March 13, 2022
It’s ironic for the team behind Vanced to tell its users that YouTube Premium is the next best alternative to their app, as it does appear that they acknowledge that what they’re doing is piracy, and that they easily conceded to Google’s legal demands for it.
Prior to this, Google did order Rythm and Groovy Discord music bots—both bypassing ads on YouTube Music—to shut down last year.
