If you are one of those users who refuse to subscribe to YouTube Premium nd use ad blockers like Vanced, your days might be numbered. According to a Reddit post, Google appears to be working on a new YouTube feature that detects if you are using an ad blocker.
From what the Redditor saw, those using ad blockers will get a notification from YouTube that it is not allowed and only have two options: either allow YouTube to show ads, or get YouTube Premium to enjoy an ad-free experience.
Considering that YouTube has not really made a hard stance regarding ad blockers for years, a YouTube employee did confirm that this feature is currently an experiment.
Should YouTube implement this—like how it implemented its 1080p Premium option as a paid feature—banning ad blockers could be a sensible move to the video streaming platform, as ads are part of the income generated from videos that is necessary to pay for the platform’s ever-increasing need for more storage and bandwidth to store all of the videos in YouTube.
Should YouTube actually push for banning ad blockers—and even adding as much as 5 unskippable ads—it seems that they are trying to go the same route as other streaming platforms where they offer a Premium service so that its users can enjoy an ad-free experience.
If users hesitate on getting a YouTube Premium subscription, we think that it is one of the best paid streaming services to get: at Php 209/month, you are getting not just an ad-free YouTube experience, but also access to YouTube Music, which is a good music streaming service if you don’t want to fork for extra cash subscribing to the likes of Spotify and Apple Music.