Key Takeaways
- YouTube is testing a new method to prevent users from skipping ads by obfuscating the Skip button.
- The change involves adding blackout squares over ads to hide the Skip button, potentially part of a limited test.
- Dissent among users has risen as YouTube tries novel ways to force ad viewership, and this new method might not go down well.
YouTube offers the best blend of user-generated content and a free viewing experience if the Premium tier doesn’t appeal to you. Unfortunately, Google might have become a little overzealous with its ad monetization, forcing viewers to watch longer ad segments, sometimes even testing long, unskippable segments. Now, a few users have seen YouTube testing a new method to prevent users from skipping ads — obfuscating the Skip button.
YouTube has been rather vocal about its war against freeloaders who won’t pay for YouTube Premium, or watch the ads which support the free stream. People use everything from browser extensions to ad blocking apps and spoofed YouTube clients to watch videos without the ads, forcing Google to take drastic measures. One recent experiment tried injecting ads in the video stream directly to deter blocking attempts. Another such attempt has now come to light.
Redditor /u/BigBlueMountainStar found YouTube testing tiny black rectangle overlays which hide the Skip button you see once and the ad becomes skippable. The placement is particularly annoying because viewers might believe the Skip button is hidden underneath, but just hidden by the on-screen sticker, quite like stickers hiding the option to proceed without tipping on POS machines.
The change could be part of a limited test
We weren’t able to recreate the ad delivery method, or experience it on any of our devices. However, the comments under the Reddit post suggest there’s more than just one person seeing this on YouTube, so it could be a limited test. YouTube’s grand plan is still a mystery, but it hiding the button could be the first step to removing it entirely.
While ad-powered monetization is essential for YouTube’s free tier to operate, dissent among users has risen since the company recently started trying novel ways to force ad viewership. Recent examples include Pause ads which show up when you pause content on your TV, suspending playback if an adblocker is detected, and slower load times.
Assuming ad-supported content is here to stay, we hope Google doesn’t eliminate the Skip button or take away the countdown timer for ad segments with future server-side updates. If you want good riddance from the ads and Google’s perseverance showing them to you, YouTube Premium is just a purchase away.
