For people who didn’t want to buy YouTube Premium to, for example, play music off-screen or skip advertisements, YouTube Vanced was an alternative. However, that alternative seems to have come to an end. Through the official Vanced Twitter account, it was announced this YouTube service has come to an end.
The mentioned post on Twitter from March 13 states that Vanced has been abolished and that the download links on the website will be removed in the coming days. We know it’s not something you want to hear, but it’s something that, according to YouTube, had to be done, with gratitude to everyone who has supported them over the years.
Official Reasons for Shutting Down Vanced Aren’t Known
However, there’s also good news. The good news is that the current version of the app will continue to work properly until it becomes obsolete in two years. The official reasons for canceling YouTube Vanced aren’t known, but they are probably legal reasons. After all, YouTube Vanced was an alternative to those who didn’t want to pay YouTube Premium, and Google obviously didn’t like it, so it took action.
NewPipe, a free tool that eliminates advertisements on YouTube and offers video downloads and background playback, is recommended for individuals looking for an alternative to YouTube Vanced.
List of Features That’ll Be Missing by Shutting Down Vanced
Vanced didn’t only eliminate pre-roll video adverts (not all were pushy, e.g. adverts for best Trustly casino sites were well-tailored) or enable YouTube Premium features like background playback, contrary to widespread assumption. Vanced greatly improved the general usefulness of the site, even a long-time YouTube Premium subscribers will admit. However, now that the app is doomed for oblivion, you should be preparing yourselves for the transition period that returning to the official app will entail.
To that end, we’ve compiled a list of the six YouTube Vanced features we’ll miss the most.
SponsorBlock
In a word, SponsorBlock lets you bypass in-ad sponsor parts, previews, end credits, and other similar sections automatically. We’ll be the first to confess that it’s a contentious program. However, once you start utilizing it, you’ll find it difficult to ignore the time you’ll save. We’ve discovered that the function can remove several minutes of filler information on average. Over the course of a few months, this can easily build up to many hours.
While such functionality will never be added to YouTube’s app, it’s a feature that has attracted many people to Vanced. Fortunately, SponsorBlock feature will be integrated into NewPipe. Similarly, we believe it will only be a matter of time before a fully functional Vanced successor emerges.
Video Dislike Counts That Can Be Restored
Late last year, YouTube disabled the dislike counter from public display, as you may have heard. The move, according to the corporation, is intended to encourage meaningful dialogue between creators and their audiences. Many users, on the other hand, relied on this number as a quick indicator of video quality and technical accuracy. High dislike ratios, for example, in the education and DIY niches can serve as an early warning sign of probable inaccuracy or even downright unsafe advice.
Thankfully, because of its relationship with Return YouTube Dislike (RYD), Vanced was able to quickly restore the dislike count. RYD is a browser extension that combines pre-2022 data and extrapolated extension user behavior to restore dislike numbers on YouTube in its original form.
Preferences for Granular Resolution
The YouTube app currently allows you to choose between three video quality settings: Auto, Higher visual quality, or Data saver. While connected to a Wi-Fi network, most users prefer a 1080p stream. “Higher picture quality“ – the app’s concept – nearly invariably translates to a 480p minimum. That’s odd, given that YouTube no longer considers 720p to be HD on its own platform.
Vanced has a lot better choices; simply choose your default resolution, which ranges from 144p to 2160p granularity. If you frequently watch movies at 1.5x or 2x speed, you can even specify a favorite video speed. You could also use the app to disable YouTube’s new UI resolution selection. With Vanced, you never had to employ a menu. Even if you do, you’re only one tap away from your desired resolution.
Adjustments to the User Interface and a True Dark Theme
While a plain dark theme may not appear to be much of a feature, it was one of Vanced’s early selling points. When Vanced was first released, YouTube didn’t even have a dark theme. Even when Google introduced a dark mode with Android 10 in 2018, it chose a dark gray rather than a genuine black. The latter, in our opinion, simply looks better and has a valuable side effect: lower battery consumption on AMOLED displays, as Google admits.
Vanced’s dark theme isn’t the only one at your disposal. You can also enable or disable various features of the app, such as info cards, the YouTube Stories section, and the “Create“ button. You may customize the app’s design, and thus your YouTube experience, to your preferences.
Share Links With a Time Stamp
YouTube allows you to create video links with embedded timestamps from your desktop. With so many videos on the site now topping 10 minutes, the functionality is useful if you only want to post a brief clip or portion. We’ve always desired similar functionality in the mobile app, especially as it was more likely to share movies from phones than from computers.
Vanced made it possible to share time-stamped video links with a specific icon in the video player in 2021. It works precisely as it should: after enabling the option in the Vanced settings menu, pressing the icon copies a time-stamped link to your clipboard.
Gestures as a Base for Controls
Though Vanced’s various interface elements include gesture control, it merits its own section. Simply put, you may use swipe gestures to alter brightness and volume levels. The brightness is controlled by the left side, while the volume is controlled by the right side. You can also specify a minimum swipe threshold in the Vanced settings menu to prevent unintentional alterations.
This feature has been available in third-party video player software like VLC for years, so it’s odd that YouTube hasn’t included it yet.
Which feature from the list above (or outside the list) of YouTube Vanced will you miss the most?
