this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2025
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That's absolutely unbelievable to me. I block ads on everything. I just can't handle it. For the few ad-based services that I pay for, I mute it for every commercial. Seriously, I just can't handle it.
But... clearly tons and tons and tons and tons and tons of people do watch them... which makes a massively lucrative business. I'll just never understand it.
When I need something, I look it up and get it. If i don't need something, I don't want to hear about it in any way, shape, or form.
Ugh.
10 billion. 😖
Most people using a smartphone use the default YouTube app. And that app does not have any ability to block ads. Most people don't know they can block ads or even if they did, they don't know how.
I use YouTube in Firefox for Android because it has ublock. That's by far the easiest way. All the other apps wouldn't work for me or don't show my recommendations.
I've heard of enough people wanting ads too. And people complaining that they want them back after they were blocked.
It gets harder and harder to have any faith in humanity these days.
Yep. It's becoming more and more common for folks to know that they can do it, but it certainly isn't ubiquitous. It wasn't that long ago when I caught my partner listening to music on YouTube with all the ads and I blew their mind away by installing NewPipe. They just had no idea.
This is kind of a sticky situation for me. While I'm pretty tech savvy, my partner is not. I'd love to have them use NewPipe. But as a NewPipe user myself, it has been very buggy lately due to YouTube changing things. I understand why it's buggy but they would not and I think it would be more annoying than helpful.
Firefox+U-block Origin works pretty well on mobile
I've had no problems with ReVanced. It's a little complicated to set up so I wouldn't blame a non-techy for not doing it, but if you can set it up for them, it works great. And it has the huge bonus of being able to connect to your YouTube account to let you do things like comment and add to playlists, to work well when switching between desktop and mobile.
Yeah... I do not understand how people can cope with all those ads on YouTube. I really don't get it... It drives me crazy !
Even on radio or TV. When I see/hear one single ad, I'm out !
I only listen to public radio stations in my country, because they only run adds every hour.
I seem to have a visceral reaction to advertisements. It's very physical.
My pet peeve about ads everywhere now is on Android.
Your Android phone doesn't come with a voice recorder? Download one, with ads every time you record.
You want a different calculator? Ads!
Flashlight app? Ads!
Notepad? Ads!
And people just apparently accept ads in nearly every app, even the most basic ones.
I don't remember the Sound Recorder, or Notepad having ads. But because people are now used to ads everywhere, it's certainly coming as MS is trying to jam ads in everywhere possible in Windows too, now.
I'm so grateful for Linux. The apps I get through apt-get don't make me watch ads. Unfortunately even if based on Linux, the Android world is so infuriatingly crammed with ads.
I wish I could find a "phone" or portable device in that format, with an OS that works like "true" Linux.
Use f-droid. The apps may not always be as polished (hell, some play store apps look like they came out of 2005), but you can filter apps by anti-features such as ads, tracking, permissions, etc.
As for what you've mentioned:
The fossify repo of apps is privacy friendly, no ads, etc.
Fossify Voice Recorder (Record anything with this Open-source and Ad-free recorder) https://f-droid.org/packages/org.fossify.voicerecorder/
Since I found out about fdroid from Lemmy I pretty much only look at fdroid and install apps from there. I have to set a reminder to open play store and update my other apps.
Uh, may I introduce you to F-droid, the FOSS "appstore".
Edit: adding a link and also the community:
https://f-droid.org/
[email protected]
Fortunately, you can block all those ads on Android. Check out Tracker Control: https://f-droid.org/packages/net.kollnig.missioncontrol.fdroid
or just use DNS servers from Mullvad, no additional app required https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls#android
You can also just set your private DNS to something like
dns.adguard.comand block almost all ads in every app, no installs requiredI'm personally using
p2.freedns.controld.comfor anyone looking for an alternative.I actually use adblock.dns.mullvad.net, I just recommend adguard for beginners as it seems more stable (though I've not had a stability issue with mullvad for years)
Always good to have options. People need to find whatever works for them.
Yep, that can work per device or per network. I'm a big fan of Tracker Control because it's going to work on any network. It's also highly customizable.
Nice tool, thank you ! However I'm bit confused
That's strange... Why have different versions doing different things?
The short answer is that the Google Play version won't actually block anything because it breaks their terms of service. So that version just tells you how many trackers and what the trackers are. I still use some of those apps and even respect them (e.g. AP News, AccuWeather), but it completely boggles my mind how they've loaded so many trackers into their applications... 🫤
Longer answer: To actually block trackers and ads, you need to use a third party source to download the app so that it's fully functional. By providing the app that way, they don't have to abide by Google Plays rules.
The link above is for the F-Droid "app store" version, which is one of the more well-known "stores." I highly recommend F-Droid. They host free and open source (FOSS) applications. For most everything you use, there is a FOSS alternative which will be ad and tracker free.
https://f-droid.org/
Want a simple ad-free calculator, go there. Want to watch YouTube ad free, go there. Want to download an ad free Lemmy client, go there. Etc etc.
Hurrah for high quality FOSS software!
Why would you pay for something with ads?
Because I'm not privileged enough to afford it without.