You remember Netflix’s battle against password-sharing, now YouTube is at war against ad blockers. This, of course, is an attempt to press more people to pay for a premium subscription. Now, according to several Reddit users (via Android Police), YouTube will show a timer when it detects that you’re using an ad blocker.
One of the main reasons why people pay for the premium subscription is to avoid having to endure ads across the platform. That might be the main reason. However, folks are able to get an ad-free experience using ad blockers on their browsers. That, as you can imagine, doesn’t sit well with YouTube because it gives users a paid service for free. This is why the company is taking aim at ad blockers.
YouTube brings a new timer when it detects that you’re using an ad blocker
When you’d use an ad blocker, the company would pick up that and give you a popup prompting you to get a premium subscription. That was aggravating for users, but the company looks to be pushing things to the next step.
A Reddit user reported that they saw a popup with a small timer on the top right corner. We don’t know how long the timer is, but the Redditor states that it’s between 30 and 60 seconds. Other Redditors corroborated the story, but it seems that this feature is only hitting a limited selection of users. So, YouTube might just be testing the feature with an official release slated for a later date.
If you get the timer, then you have a limited amount of time to be able to watch your content before the platform bans your access. It’s a much more straightforward move than the three-strike policy introduced back in June. This policy would ban your account if you’re caught using an ad blocker three times. The ban could either be temporary or permanent.