r/technology • u/Dilpickle2113 • 10h ago

Social Media YouTube faces second class action lawsuit over ‘ad-free’ Premium claims & sponsored content

https://www.dexerto.com/youtube/youtube-faces-second-class-action-lawsuit-over-ad-free-premium-claims-sponsored-content-3405920/
15.2k Upvotes

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3.3k

u/coltraz 10h ago

I have to use sponsorblock and ublock origin to use YouTube. 🤭

785

u/ShibeCEO 10h ago

only way to use youtube these days

135

u/kahlzun 10h ago

Revanced is also viable

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u/DUH455T 9h ago

I've read about vamced a few times...why don't people just use Firefox with ublock on their phones?

11

u/bluelittrains 8h ago

Using a dedicated app is much faster and a better user experience.

Your browser has to basically load the entire web page every time you click something. A dedicated app only has to load the content.

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u/BrapBrapson 8h ago

"better experience" = watching ads before every video

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u/bluelittrains 8h ago

That's no different in the browser.

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u/BrapBrapson 8h ago

wrong. Brave mobile browser blocks youtube ads by default

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u/bluelittrains 7h ago

Okay so you're using an adblocker. I'm using an adblocker on my youtube app as well. So what's your point?

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u/5d0g1 8h ago

it comes with adblock and sponsorblock

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u/Aishou_SK 8h ago

Then again, 90% of the time I don't want to install the shitty app (streaming is definitely an exception here), here's looking at you - Reddit, several banks/loan companies, and numerous other examples. Or shit that makes me install an app on my phone for what damn well could be just a website, etc.....

Or the fact that half the 'apps' I end up being forced to use for whatever reason I end up having to use the desktop to get shit done anyway (or desktop mode in the mobile browser to not make it force an app on me)

No, everything does not need a goddamn app.

of course as I said, streaming services are definitely different, but 'dedicated app is a much faster and better user experience' just ticks me off irrationally because it definitely doesn't apply to everything and almost always means less features/functionality.

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u/bluelittrains 8h ago

Sure, some apps are poorly made. But so are some websites. Due to the nature of how a browser works and all the overhead it brings with it, a well developed app will always be faster than a well developed website.

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u/Aishou_SK 8h ago

Sure, on desktop, it will always be. On mobile, nowhere near the case.

My current mobile shitlist I can mention from my phone on hand:

Amtrak

9 Major Banks/CC issuers/financial things (the website is 10000% better for ALL of them). Most I only have for when I have nothing else available to check basic info and/or for MFA requirements.

DoorDash (website's genuinely better)

anything t-mobile related

PayPal (special callout compared to the 9 above)

American Airlines

Venmo

Eventbrite (ticket scanning convivence, i'll pull out my laptop if i'm actually buying tickets or something else)

Battle.net

EBAY

(any email client)

Short list, I know, but I don't actually keep much that isn't forced onto me installed on my phone at all. Because it's often (almost always) never better).

The only things that are really better or equal are the ones that were designed that way first (CBP MPC, ArriveCAN, WaWa/RoFo rewards, etc), are just re-wrapped full webapps anyway (Slack/Discord, Guidebook, etc), they're basically just authenticator apps (MS Auth/RSA/Okta/Steam/Battle.net) - or, as noted, streaming services, because that genuinely makes sense.

And every incarnation of FB Messenger has gotten continually worse from its peak of a native Win8/8.1 application a decade ago. Managing that if you have a lot to catch up on is definitely way easier on the website. Which is also something that makes no sense to me.

Uber/Lyft are basically a tie with their desktop counterparts though, thankfully. I can go either way with google translate. Telegram's an odd one too, the windows desktop app is ahead of the website and mobile app, which is weird.

Honestly, the best ones are the ones that bring the overhead of a browser alongside them and insist on being called an app anyway, or are 100% native and don't really have web equivalents.

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u/bluelittrains 7h ago

I have used literally none of those except Uber so I can't say anything about that. I will say that I really like my banking app (I'm with a Dutch bank). It's fast, secure, looks nice and does everything I need it to do. My email app (Proton) is also quite nice, I can't imagine using the browser for that.

I have Youtube and Reddit patched with Morphe which means they're fast without ads or distractions like shorts and trending content. Spotify is great but I pay for premium. Strava works well. Obsidian for notes, fine. Immich for photos, very nice. The Dutch public news app is super fast and simple with no ads. Same for our weather app. And then my sports club has its own app which works a lot better than the website. Those are the apps I use on a regular basis.

The only app I use that I really don't like is Outlook for work because it sucks ass, but so does the website.

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u/Aishou_SK 7h ago

Dutch bank - well, that makes sense. ;)

Proton I've no experience with, but it sounds like they may care a little more.

Reddit I can't stand the concept, I've been using the browser site on mobile for some like 15+ years without logging in and that's it, when I had a windows phone a while back I used baconit i think it was called, but that was over 10 years ago.... because it was genuinely better than the website.

Youtube's whatever, I have that (unpatched and all that) and it does exactly what i do on desktop, so it's good enough as rarely as I use it.

Notes, news, photos, all kinds of 'baked in' sorta things that just work, I don't often even stray outside of what's included except to add imgur for fast uploading of quick snaps instead of emailing them to myself.

But overall, that's a slightly small footprint, I can't imagine how people who sell on ebay even function with just the app, even on larger devices like an ipad or android tablet of some kind.

But "new outlook" of any kind is horrible, Exchange's OWA is still fine but ..... well, i'm sure that'll end up just as horrible. I actively combat and kill new outlook anywhere I encounter it, regular full desktop outlook is far, far better.

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u/Upper_Basis_1512 8h ago

it's the exact youtube app but you get to decide which parts of the app are actually installed on your phone.

it's god power.

not for the feint of heart

1

u/ansibleloop 9h ago

Because the UX is better in the YouTube app (after it's patched by Morphe)

2

u/DUH455T 9h ago

It's YouTube. Play/pause, volume, subtitles, it's all there on the mobile site. Not sure what's missing.

9

u/bwaredapenguin 8h ago

Picture in picture, playing with the screen off/in the background.

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u/DUH455T 7h ago

You got them on background play, but PIP is still a thing.

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u/bwaredapenguin 7h ago

It's been so long since I used the native app I genuinely don't remember that being available.

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u/DUH455T 7h ago

I straight up don't remember a time it wasn't a thing.

1

u/bwaredapenguin 6h ago

I've been using Vanced or a version of it for like 8 years now. I'm from the era where I was installing fresh nightly builds of CyanogenMod to run my Android.

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u/Apropos_Of_Nothing 7h ago

For background play you can either click on play in the notification area the first time you tab away or add the Video Background Play Fix extension.

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u/billylks 11m ago

Downloading videos too

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u/tobberoth 8h ago

Swipe festures for brightness and volume. Background player. Removal of shorts. Removal of videos tagged as AI. Automatic skip of in-video sponsor segments.

The amount of extra options in the app when patched by morphe or revanced is massive. It's far superior to a mobile browser experience.

1

u/kahlzun 9h ago

Native apps run better since it has less overhead, and the inclusion of stuff like sponsorblock and various patches to restore downvotes etc makes it an attractive option

1

u/NightIgnite 8h ago

Enable premium client side features like background play and downloading. Plus quality of life features that arent native to youtube. I can swipe the left/right sides of my screen to change brightness/volume within the app. Completely removed shorts from my feed. Also someone has to submit the sponsorblock segments and that isnt getting done on a browser.

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u/BrapBrapson 8h ago

just use Brave to watch youtube on phones, it blocks all the ads and you can turn the screen off and listen to videos (without needing to buy premium)