YouTube is experimenting with removing the circular countdown timer that appears before users can skip ads, both on desktop and mobile versions.
YouTube ads will soon no longer have a skip countdown. Photo: Alamy.
Although ads are a major source of revenue for content creators on YouTube, users have become increasingly frustrated with the excessive number of ads on the platform.
Soon, it seems that YouTube ads may become even more intrusive, even for users who are willing to sit through the first few seconds of an ad.
Specifically, according to Android Police, the countdown timer that appears before users can hit the skip button for ads seems to be disappearing.
Last week, YouTube users noticed a blank space or a gray rectangle covering the countdown timer on the desktop version of the platform.
A similar test has also been seen on the Android version of YouTube. The main difference on mobile is that there’s no gray rectangle—rather, the countdown timer has completely vanished.
Even without the countdown timer, the skip ad button still appears after a certain period.
Android Police suggests this may be a deliberate move by YouTube to make users believe the ads are unskippable since they don’t see the skip button right away.
More importantly, Android Police believes this is a small yet significant change that could become a standard practice for YouTube in the future.
In reality, it’s not surprising that YouTube would want more people to watch more ads, as this is how the platform makes a lot of money. This approach could also encourage more people to pay for YouTube Premium, as they become tired of seeing ads.
Since the launch of the Premium package in 2018, YouTube has faced negative feedback from free users regarding the increase in sponsored content. On forums like Quora and Reddit, many account holders have reported seeing more ads than before, ever since YouTube introduced its paid service.
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Source: Vietnam Insider