Vanced: YouTube ad-blocker is discontinuing ‘due to legal reasons’

Photo credit: Shubham Dhage / Unsplash

Monday, March 14, 2022 9:37 AM UTC

There are many ad-blocking plug-ins people can download or install on their browsers to avoid ads while watching YouTube videos. But many have been huge fans of Vanced because its developers have introduced more features aside from blocking ads over the years. But YouTube viewers who do not like seeing ads but cannot or opt not to pay the monthly YouTube Premium fee will have to find an alternative to Vanced soon.

"Vanced has been discontinued," the developers announced on Twitter on Sunday. "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 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

Vanced released similar announcements on other online channels, including Reddit and Telegram. The official statement on Twitter did not provide more details on what caused the discontinuation of Vanced. But it did not take long before fans speculated that it may have been caused by legal action from Google. This was later confirmed by the developers through the Vanced Telegram channel, saying, "It was done due to legal reasons."

For fans of Vanced hoping to get more detailed information than that might have to settle with that brief explanation. On Reddit, a Vanced subreddit moderator wrote, "You don't have to know the exact reason this had to happen, you can probably figure it out yourself, considering we had to do it."

The latest version of the Vanced app will continue to work, but the developers said they would stop working in a couple of years once they become "outdated." People who have yet to try Vanced still have a chance to get the ad-blocking app. As of this writing, the Vanced Manager download link is still active, but the developers said they will also stop working "in the coming days."

As mentioned, the Vanced app does more than block ads on YouTube videos. It also supports Picture-in-Picture mode and AMOLED black theme. Aside from ads placed by YouTube, Vanced can also block sponsored ads, which are the promotional segments creators include in the actual video content.

Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash