From now on, it will be much harder to hide ads on YouTube, as the skip button is hard to notice at first.
Since last week, some users have noticed that the countdown timer for the «skip ads» — button has disappeared in the YouTube desktop app, or rather, it’s temporarily hidden by a gray rectangle that prevents you from clicking it.Initially Android Police assumed that this was a limited test from YouTube, but complaints about the «new feature» have increased — and now it can be seen on mobile devices, but without the gray rectangle and the timer itself.
«This seems to be a deliberate move to make users think that the ad cannot be skipped until the button eventually reappears», — the site notes
YouTube hasn’t made any official announcements yet, but given the widespread testing, the change may become a standard feature in the future, encouraging users to subscribe.
As a reminder, earlier YouTube has started to implement displaying ads on pause and regularly intensifies the fight against ad blockers: with the application slowing down, limiting the number of video views and giant advertising posters that offer to sign up for a Premium subscription
Subscription fees will soon increase in some European countries. In Belgium, Italy, Ireland, and the Netherlands, the price of a family YouTube subscription is going up from €17.99 to €25.99 per month, while the cost of an annual subscription will reach a sky-high €311.88 (individual rates are going up from €12 to €14 in all of these regions).
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