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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[Stealphie]

That's a shame. I've used it before, really damn good app. Boo.

 

[Marc_LFD]

I love using YouTube Vanced and YouTube Music Vanced as it offers features a free app should offer, but Google has deemed them "premium" for the sake of it. I'm not paying just to have those features.

I'll keep using YT Vanced for another two years or whenever it becomes unusable.

F you, Google.

 

[Marc_LFD]

Maaaan this really sucks I have been using vanced for a couple of years now and I really don't want to go back to standard youtube they have made it so bad over the years, taken away features that used to be free and put them into their premium subscription and the crazy amount of ads makes it almost unwatchable.
I am going to be missing listening to YouTube vids while my screen is off or just having the video playing while I am browsing or playing some crappy mobile game.

You can use Brave or Firefox to listen to audio in the background.

YouTube had premium content like Cobra Kai, but now that's on Netflix and God knows where it's gonna be afterwards considering NF is constantly losing licensed content.

 

[Glyptofane]

I loved it for being able to watch videos in the background, something that should not be paywalled.
Fuck's sake, Google is a piece of shit.

There are some other ways to achieve this with mobile browsers for Android and it works with web players other than YouTube as well. Brave can do it with its "Background video playback" setting. You can also use any browser with plugin support such as Firefox and its forks, Kiwi Browser, and probably Yandex. Firefox has the "Video Background Play Fix" Add-on and Kiwi Browser has "Youtube BG 1", but it can also be achieved with custom filters for uBlock Origin as described in this Reddit post:

Spoiler

 

[altorn]

I blame the people who keep boasting on all social media that they have Vanced and never have to pay for premium.

 

[Xalusc]

For IOS I never found an easy solution

Just install the following tweaks

• uYou
• Return YouTube Dislike
• iSponsorBlock

If you're not jailbroken, you can find all of these packaged in a neat little IPA called uYouPlus you can sideload to your device.

 

[FAST6191]

Had seen some mention it. Never played with it though/barely knew what it did. If they are going to distribute a nice hacked version in the open rather than anonymously do such a thing or do a patcher then that is less poking the bear than spanking its nadgers with a hockey stick.


That said mostly here to be all

*smug with PC that never considered not playing background stuff, adblock, sponsorblock ( https://sponsor.ajay.app/ ), bookmarks and alternative video sites to dodge ze algorithm, scripts to disable comments, easy download options and whatever else to make it a nice experience*

 

[CloudStrife190100]

Yes.

Get Blackhole from Github

Cheers for that. Will have a look now

 

[codezer0]

Vanced was the only thing that made YouTube tolerable to use on my phone. Now I find this article and I can't even begin to fully process how much this angers me to hear.

 

[AureLiana]

Definitely a shame, but it's a good thing there are plenty of alternatives.

lol no there's not. there are only shitty copycats and fake apps trying to lure clicks out there

 

[Deleted member 194275]

Just install the following tweaks

• uYou
• Return YouTube Dislike
• iSponsorBlock

If you're not jailbroken, you can find all of these packaged in a neat little IPA called uYouPlus you can sideload to your device.

Very nice indeed, thanks a lot for the info! It will not work on apple TV right?

 

[bonkmaykr]

Fuck Youtube, fuck Google, fuck RIAA, and fuck Alphabet.

youtube-dl and Vanced do not violate the DMCA as they do not contain copyrighted content in themselves. But of course, whoever has the most money gets to bribe US courts into whatever they want.

This is what happens when you let one website have such a huge marketshare over a single industry and become such a household name that it stifles competition, especially in a world where hosting a video platform is a legal nightmare to do on your own. Youtube doesn't have to try to be good anymore. They're an unstoppable money printer with no serious competition. This is a pattern with every company that starts off good, we trust them too much and then they turn on all of us. Even the original founder of Youtube hates this, and I'm sure if he had the level of foresight needed to predict we would get to this point, he would have never sold Youtube.

 

[Tomato123]

Fuck Youtube, fuck Google, fuck RIAA, and fuck Alphabet.

youtube-dl and Vanced do not violate the DMCA as they do not contain copyrighted content in themselves. But of course, whoever has the most money gets to bribe US courts into whatever they want.

This is what happens when you let one website have such a huge marketshare over a single industry and become such a household name that it stifles competition, especially in a world where hosting a video platform is a legal nightmare to do on your own. Youtube doesn't have to try to be good anymore. They're an unstoppable money printer with no serious competition. This is a pattern with every company that starts off good, we trust them too much and then they turn on all of us. Even the original founder of Youtube hates this, and I'm sure if he had the level of foresight needed to predict we would get to this point, he would have never sold Youtube.

Unfortunately, Vanced does contain copyrighted content. It's a modification of the YouTube app, which is copyrighted by YouTube/Google. The only legal way to obtain it is from Google themselves, even if it is free. As much of a dick move it is from the YouTube team, they're totally in the right to target it from a legal perspective.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

Anyone got a .APK?

 

[Deleted member 532471]

Speedrun
Vance installer - all devices
Any 100%

 

[Deleted member 532471]

Anyone got a .APK?

You can still get it on their GitHub it has been archived

https://github.com/YTVanced/VancedManager/releases/tag/v2.6.2-262

 

[Subtle Demise]

Everyone is mad but this app is built to take away YouTube revenue - if everyone used this app, YouTube could not exist at all

I am more surprised it took this long to take it down

Oh darn

I did some research, and found some good alternatives (though not as good as Vanced right now):

• SkyTube
• NewPipe
• Your browser of choice with Ublock Origin extension
• Your browser of choice with AdNauseam extension
• Browser's with adblock features included, like Brave or Tor

I'll keep looking for other options, but as of right now, Vanced will keep working for some time.
I think the official statement said that it should still work fine for something around 2 years, but I really hope a good alternative with similar features drops before then, since I do rely on being logged in to YouTube for watching my video subscriptions, and some of these options don't allow for logged in YouTube (I tH

Sucks that the Android apps don't have Sponsorblock support

 

[Subtle Demise]

EDIT: Accidental Double Post

 

[BaamAlex]

Definitely a shame, but it's a good thing there are plenty of alternatives.

What are the alternatives?

 

[urbanman2004]

@urbanman2004 and @BitMasterPlus Should we use KY, or attach sandpaper to ourselves to fuq 'em?

I prefer lotion you mf ‍♂‍♂, lmao