YouTube: Say Goodbye to Ads Forever

YouTube ads. We know them, we love to hate them. However, you might not need to watch another ad ever again.

Earlier this week, a post was put up on Reddit’s r/webdev. A user had found a way to skip every advertisement on YouTube, but it only works for desktop.

‘How?,’ you ask? It’s very simple. Just ad (pun intended) a full stop at the end of the video URL, after the .com. So instead of www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejk29Wi you write www.youtube.com./watch?v=ejk29Wi.

How does this work?

Adding that character to the address bar breaks some parts of the page. When the JavaScript in the page is trying to contact the server for ads, the full stop causes a host name match error.

That has the side effect of removing the ads and some cookies from most pages, including video ads. It works on both desktop and mobile browsers for most sites, but for mobile you need to show the desktop version of the page.

However, with great power comes great responsibility. If you want to use this trick, remember that the way most internet creators (including us) get money is through the ads that play on their content. This means that stopping the ads will defraud them of their money. If that sits well in your conscience, then feel free to use it.

Even if you don’t use it yourself, you can still show it off to your friends and family, maybe even feel like a ‘hacker’.