Big loss for the modding community
If you weren’t too fond of the official YouTube app, there were many alternatives at your disposal. One of them was YouTube Vanced — a modded version of the original app that added features like ad blocking, background playback, and many more without charging users like YouTube’s Premium tier. We even put it on our list of the best indie apps you can get. It further gained popularity by bringing back dislike counts in videos just as Google removed them from their service. Note that we’ve been telling you about the mod in the past tense. That’s because we’re here to mourn the passing of YouTube Vanced.
The folks behind the project announced Sunday in the app’s official Telegram channel and on the Vanced Twitter account that it will be discontinued. No clear reason was given as to why it was killed off, so we can only speculate — but it’s likely due to Google’s legal department taking notice of Vanced. The tech giant has been cracking down on unauthorized clients lately, such as a pair of popular Discord bots for listening to music on a server, Groovy and Rythm. Those were taken down after YouTube sent cease and desist letters to the developers. It’s not much of a leap to imagine something similar happened here.
The convenience of YouTube Vanced earned some passionate backers. The app unlocked or circumvented many Premium features like background playback and ad blocking, and it added features YouTube didn’t like at all, like those pesky dislike counters. Recently, the app had even rebranded to change its name to just “Vanced,” and it removed most mentions of YouTube from its website — possibly an attempt to avert legal drama with Google.
Vanced was never the only alternative YouTube app. Others include open-source NewPipe, which is more lightweight than the official app. But YouTube Vanced had a huge user base, and we’ll miss it. It won’t be updated anymore, but you can still get the last version. Do it quickly, though — the download links will soon be gone.
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