YouTube Vanced has been discontinued.
The most popular mod that allows users to watch ad-free YouTube videos and see the dislike button will stop posting more updates. The YouTube Vanced team cited legal reasons for the shutdown, but it remains unclear as to who or what threatened them with legal action.
All hints point to Google as the culprit.
No More Ad-Free YouTube; Vanced Blocks Itself
"Blocking ads is better than blocking me" is the Vanced slogan as posted on its official homepage. This refers to their main selling point which is to provide a modded app that allows Android users to watch ad-free YouTube videos even without paying for a Premium subscription.
Unfortunately, YouTube Vanced has now been forced to block itself.
The shocking news was announced both on Twitter and the Vanced Telegram group chat.
Vanced has been discontinued. In the coming days, the download links on the website will be taken down. We know this is not something you wanted to hear but it's something we need to do. Thank you all for supporting us over the years.
— Vanced Official (@YTVanced) March 13, 2022
The YouTube Vanced team said that they will discontinue providing updates and will also take down the download links on their website. The future of their website remains unknown.
In a bittersweet piece of news, YouTube Vanced will remain operational until maybe after two years when it becomes outdated. After that, the ad-free YouTube everyone knows and loves may disappear.
The Vanced team has not revealed the reason for the discontinuation at first, but after a while, they updated their post. They said that the shutdown was "due to legal reasons."
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Is Google the Culprit?
When people say that they stop doing something due to legal reasons, it most probably means that they were threatened with legal action. Vanced has yet to disclose who or what was the catalyst for the shutdown.
However, signs point to Google as the culprit.
According to The Verge, Google's YouTube has already shut down two popular Discord bots, Groovy and Rythm, before. And within weeks after the bots' demise, Google started to test ad-friendly YouTube integration into Discord.
Google's history may indicate that it had a hand in Vanced shutdown, but the question now is, why would Google do this? Why now when it had the opportunity to do it before?
Interestingly, Google could demand that Vanced stop the distribution of its app anytime. This is because Vanced is just a modified version of the YouTube app whose copyright Google owns. It does not hold enough difference with YouTube to be considered as an original work.
In other words, Youtube Vanced is infringing upon YouTube's copyright.
A possible reason why Google did not go after Vanced before is that it still benefited from the modded app.
For one, Google can still receive Vanced users' watch history, video Hotpoint data, click-ratios, and other data. Google can then use this data to improve its algorithm and user experience. The Vanced users also inflate the numbers presented by Google to its advertisers. This means that it has more leverage to demand more ad money.
Now, these reasons may not have been enough anymore. Vanced may have outlived its purpose.
If history will be consistent, it looks like Google and YouTube are preparing to test or launch an app, feature, or program that will be similar to Vanced. After all, that is what happened with the Discord bots.
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