Android, Google, and Ads
Google's Android platform has been powering the lion's share of smartphones for many years now. The smartphone OS for everyone, as its been typecast, lacks the premium branding of iOS and the Apple ecosystem. But while it lacks the snub factor iOS provides to its users, it is a much more fun system to use if you like to tweak and hack your computing devices.
Google "owns" Android, and the bulk of its revenue comes from advertising to end users. This much maligned end user advertising helps pay the bills for Google, and allows us all to enjoy amazing convenience and compelling Google user experiences for "free".
Of course, there are no free lunches here. You enjoy Google's arsenal of amazing services for no cost, but you have to give up a measure of privacy and put up with the inconvenience of having to see ads or watch commercials.
The Case of Youtube
Youtube is one of the killer apps of the internet age. You get a large and ever growing library of videos in all kinds of different genre to suit everyone's needs and tastes. The content is also compelling and a lot of it is extremely high quality to boot. Remarkably this is all free of cost to all users.
Back 20 years ago, having access to a service like this would have meant paying for a premium service, but these days with the internet and the economies of scale, advertising takes care of it.
Now, I am sure > 99% of all Youtube users would love to enjoy this service without having to put up with ads. Best of both worlds, right? Enjoy a really compelling service, pay nothing, and skip the need to watch ads...
So this is where Android's open nature, and laissez-faire attitude opens up the door to having your cake and eating it too. All this at Google's expense...
Youtube (Ad) Vanced
Youtube Vanced has been around for many years now. It is a modified (hacked) version of the Youtube APK binary that removes advertising and other restrictions. This is not a Google endorsed product and though I am not a lawyer, it very likely violates the terms of use for Youtube and the Android app.
I have looked into it in its various forms on different occasions to check out what it can do, and see if it is all that it is cracked to be, and monitor its evolution.
The name "Youtube Vanced", as you may have figured out is "Youtube Advanced", without the "Ad". Yup, very funny... Ha ha ha... I have to admit it is clever.
Does this thing work? Yup it does, very well thank you very much. Not only does it allow you to watch Youtube on Android without having to put up with those yucky commercials, but it unlocks some features that are only available to premium Youtube Premium users, like background play, music video picture in picture, etc.
Mind blowing... I know.
I looked at this back in 2017 when I had a rooted Nexus 6P, and it was interesting but I am philosophically opposed to blocking ads. This is my personal position, but I appreciate great services for "free" for the inconvenience of having ads be shown to me. I think the ad model enables a lot of things on the internet, usually at no cost to users, and I think we should all support this to some extent.
Youtube Vanced is a neat little app, saves you a lot of time when binge watching, and as long as Google tolerates this, and I would think they do since they have not blocked or banned users.
You can also install it in a non rooted phone. Out of curiosity and to monitor the evolution of the app, I have tried in both rooted and non rooted forms over the years, and amazingly, you give up very little when foregoing the rooted version and running unrooted.
Rooted or Unrooted Vanced
When you run rooted, the Vanced app pretends to be a version of the official Youtube APK. As far as Android and the Google Mobile Services are concerned, Vanced ***IS*** Youtube. This means you can open a link with "Youtube" and the Vanced app will come up. In Android Auto, when you run the "Youtube App", Vanced comes up also, everything works as expected, but with no ads...
When you run unrooted, the Vanced app is not a replacement for Youtube. It doesn't try to pretend to be Youtube, and installs as a different app altogether. No biggie, right, you can still watch all the videos with no ads, and if you install and enable Micro G, you can even use Vanced unrooted with your own Google Account, so your personalization, history, recommendations, etc. are all available.
So are there any disadvantages to running Vanced unrroted? Well, you do lose the ability to open Youtube links with Vanced. You also cannot control the app in Android Auto because unlike the rooted version, the unrooted one is NOT Youtube.
Also, when running the unrooted Vanced, you will need to run Micro G if you want to log into your Google Account. Micro G stands up a separate instance of Google Mobile Services, which is costly in terms of battery life and bloats up your system to a small extent.
Either way you run it, the experience is very similar, and offer most of the same compelling value.
Summary
Youtube Vanced is an app that works amazingly well to avoid ads in Youtube, while getting premium features for free.
In isolation, this app is a must have for all Android users who spend time watching videos on Youtube.
However, when considered in the grand scheme of things, it sabotages the ad model that enables all of us to enjoy Youtube for free.
Although it would seemingly be trivial for Google to detect users who block the ads, they have so far not chosen to do so. But that may change in the future.
I watch Youtube ads, and prefer to support the ad model because it ultimately benefits us all. So while this is a neat app that is so so so compelling to use, I personally choose to support the ad driven revenue model. Something about not killing the golden goose...
