YouTube fans are fuming after an update makes watching videos almost impossible to enjoy.
The Google-owned platform has been continuously testing new features to keep pace with short-content platforms like TikTok.
But recent ones haven't landed well with users.
Upon opening the app, one update means that YouTube now skips the homepage feed and launches straight into a video - which has been branded the 'most annoying' in the app's history. Meanwhile, others saw its UI changes with a new location for the volume button as 'disgraceful.'
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Now, the YouTube community is in fits of rage after the TV app pushes users into invasive ads.
"Nobody f****** gives a s*** about the ads you’re producing you’re just wasting peoples time for money, greedy morons," one fan expressed on Reddit.
The image shows a QR code on top of an ad that allows users to 'get more info' or change their 'ad preferences.' But because of its forced nature, coupled with the inability to skip ads, users aren't happy.
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"Nope. They noticed people were spamming it, so now even after blocking it, you have to finish the Ad which defeats the purpose entirely," one user explained on the thread.
"Honestly, back in the day, I loved ads on YouTube, like fr they had 5 seconds to impress on something I actually wanted or might want in the future, thanks to that I found out about cool stuff and cool campaigns,now? It's s*** just like their algorithm, stuff I wouldn't even like in a million years, annoying af, unskipable [sic]," another explained.
"I got 2 thirty second ads which literally made it into a commercial bruh," someone else replied.
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The new feature was introduced in 2024 alongside the platform's Pause Ads. It's supposedly part of Google's strategy to help brands 'engage deeply with users,' Shekhar Kosla, VP-Marketing of Google India, explained.
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"Google AI has helped improve ROI in this respect," he said.
But on an older forum, some users say this is just another move by YouTube to 'push people to Premium.' However, this doesn't look like the end of the YouTube series of changes as the tech giant announced changes to how mid-roll ads will work starting in a couple of weeks.
The company stated: “Starting May 12, 2025, we’re improving the quality of mid-roll ads on YouTube.
"That means we’ll show more mid-roll ads at natural break points, like pauses and transitions, and fewer ads where they may feel interruptive or cause viewers to abandon the video, like in the middle of a sentence or action sequence.”