YouTube wants to put an end once and for all to the ad blockers that so many users use to be able to watch videos without ads. According to Google, owner of the video platform, this is the main reason why the loading time of the content played by users who do not have premium accounts has increased.
In recent weeks, many people have warned through social networks of a worsening user experience on YouTube. It occurs on both mobile devices and computers, and in several browsers: Firefox, Safari and Edge. From YouTube they warn that as long as these tools continue to be used, the delay in the videos will continue.
The platform explains itself like this: “To support a diverse ecosystem of creators around the world and allow billions of people to access their favorite content on YouTube, we have launched an effort to encourage viewers with ad blockers activated to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience,” they say.
Therefore, they ensure that “users who have ad blockers installed may experience suboptimal viewing, regardless of the browser they use”, so it is understood that these delays in video loading times are completely intentional.
However, there is a solution that seems to be working for all those affected: switch to Chrome. Using the browser owned by Google seems to solve the slowdown of the videos, as several users have seen.
This would be because YouTube is experimenting first with other browsers and certain accounts that use ad blockers and then bringing it to all platforms and devices.