Want to watch YouTube without ads embedded or displayed in front of your video? Not everybody knows, but it’s possible, and what’s more, even an inexperienced user can do it.
All you need to do is to install a modified YouTube client called YouTube Vanced. The program offers the benefits of YouTube Premium, but it’s absolutely free and doesn’t require root rights for your device.
Of course, you need an Internet connection to watch the clips. We told you how to share the Internet from your phone to your phone here.
We have been using YouTube Vanced for two months and are ready to share our impressions, advantages, and disadvantages.
Benefits of YouTube Vanced
The modified app allows you to sign in to your Google account and therefore see your subscriptions and leave comments.
Also, by using YouTube Vanced, you will be able to:
- Play videos in the background (with the screen locked). This is useful if you often listen to podcasts, interviews, or just music without watching videos.
- Play videos on top of other windows (picture-in-picture). This function comes in handy if you need to open another application but don’t want to be distracted from watching the video or if you watch and immediately follow the video instructions.
- Open videos in a higher resolution. For example, you can watch videos in 4K on a FullHD screen. Whether this makes sense is another question, but for most videos, the resolution restrictions do come off.
- A few design themes.
Also see:
How to install YouTube Vanced
Although, for obvious reasons, YouTube Vanced can’t be downloaded from the Play Market shop, installing the client is easy.
- Download the installation APK file of the Vanced Manager app from YouTube Vanced’s official website. (https://vancedapp.com/).
- Install Vanced Manager and open the application.
- On the main page, indicate if your device has Root rights and install MicroG. Note, you need to install MicroG before you install YouTube Vanced. It is this app that allows you to use your regular Google account.
- Install Vanced (the app will ask you to select a design theme).
- The app will then ask for permission to install from an unknown source. Go to settings and allow installation.
- The latest version of YouTube Vanced for Android will be installed on your device.
After that, you can use YouTube Vanced just like regular YouTube.
Overall impression, pros, and cons of YouTube Vanced
In the first days after you start using the program, it feels like just YouTube Premium. Picture-in-picture and background playback work perfectly, video quality selection as well. All in all, you get a lot of benefits, and for free.
There are some nuances, rather related to the use of the client on devices from different manufacturers, which we will discuss below.
First, YouTube Vanced is periodically updated and the functionality is extended. With one of the latest updates, the app started sending notifications when new videos are released on the channels you’re subscribed to. And the notification is no different from a regular YouTube notification. In practice, this means that depending on the number of subscriptions, you have a bunch of duplicated notifications all the time.
We recommend disabling notifications from either YouTube or YouTube Vanced, in which case the notifications will appear as normal.
Secondly, as we’ve already said, the app needs to be updated periodically. To do this, open Vanced Manager and on the main page, you will see YouTube Vanced, MicroG, and YouTube Music Vanced. By clicking on each of the apps you can see the current and latest version. If your version is not the latest, clicking on the square arrow icon will update it. You won’t need any additional permissions, but note that you can’t sign out of the app during the update.
We tested YouTube Vanced on a Samsung A50 smartphone. After installing the planned update with security patches and fixes on the device, it was noticed that while watching videos in YouTube Vanced, the smartphone started getting very warm and running out of power faster.
The problem was solved by updating YouTube Vanced to the latest version.
Thirdly, if you own a device from Xiaomi, you will have to disable MIUI optimization before installing or updating the YouTube Vanced client. Be warned right away that disabling this feature could potentially lead to app settings and some other problems. So if you really want Vanced, you can disable optimization, install the app, and re-enable optimization.
How to disable MIUI optimization:
- Go to the device settings (swipe the screen from top to bottom and tap the gear in the top right corner)
- Select ‘About the phone’.
- Tap the “MIUI version” line many times (until it says you’ve become a developer at the bottom)
- Exit to the general menu and go to “Advanced Settings”.
- At the bottom of the page, find the “For Developers” item
- Scroll to the bottom of the page to the “Enable MIUI optimization” line
- Move the switch opposite “Enable MIUI optimization” to the inactive position.
Note: If you don’t see “Enable MIUI optimization” in the developer menu, you should click on the “Restore defaults” line just above. According to some users, you have to click on this line at least 5 times. After that, all menu settings for developers will be reset and the item you want will appear.
Fourth, it’s impossible not to mention the new, useful feature that has become available in YouTube Vanced. Automatically or manually skip parts of videos that don’t contain useful information. This refers to intros, titles, or sponsored ads.
To turn on the feature, do the following:
- Open YouTube Vanced
- Click on your profile icon in the upper right corner
- Select “Settings.”
- At the bottom of the page, click on “Sponsor Block Settings”
- Activate the switch next to the first option “Enable Sponsor Block (Beta)
- Just below, you can configure what to do with each part of the video identified as having no useful information: Automatically skip, Show skip button, do nothing.
- In the scroll bar at the bottom of the video, promotional or non-bearing parts of the video will be shown as green bars.
Bottom line
YouTube Vanced can be used instead of the YouTube app. The advantages are numerous, and the installation of the application is much easier than it seems at first sight and can be used even by an inexperienced user.
In order for the app to work properly, we recommend updating YouTube Vanced, MicroG, and YouTube Music Vanced in time, as well as keeping an eye out for new features.