uBlock Origin and similar other add-ons, plus some hostfile entries largely mean I don't see any ads anywhere. I also block them on my router for extra diligence. They simply don't get called. The way it's supposed to be.

How do you block them on your router? I'm using Pi-hole but I still get Youtube ads through my Chromecast.

Look at Ad Free Time. You have to have certain routers. I don't use a Chromecast or any other device like a Roku, so dealing with them is an unknown for me.

DD-WRT firmware (done via hosts file).

You can also runs pixelserv that will return a 1 pixel image so you don't get any errors.

Ublock doesn't cover mobile devices though. And even if you block it on the router, once you leave the house it's only available via vpn. And if you're going that far and making it available for your whole family and are on the hook for support... Maybe it's easier to just pay a few bucks a month. (Unless you're really enjoying doing it by hand, I guess)

> Ublock doesn't cover mobile devices though

It does on FF for Android!

The context here is youtube. When you're watching a youtube video on android, it's either in the youtube app, in a webview, or in the browser. The first two are not covered by ublock and the last one is the least likely to happen. (in my experience anyway)

Why use the YouTube app? The browser is Good Enough.

If you want a more "native" player there's always SkyTube and other similar apps for longform content.

I always use Firefox, although admittedly I don't watch that many videos. Same goes for Facebook, Twitter, etc.

There's a few apps for which I think native is important, but I'm generally happy with mobile websites. uBlock Origin really makes mobile web not suck.

NewPipe on Android. Superior to the Youtube app in every way.

As JetSpiegal said, I usually just watch it in the browser and it plays fine.

I've had Google Play Music for a lot longer than YT Red was bundled with it. When they introduced it, I mostly shrugged: pre-roll ads don't really bother me, especially skippable ones.

But it turns out YouTube was the last source of dynamic (i.e., not image/text) ads in my life, and now when on the rare occasion that I accidentally open YouTube in my work Chrome profile, I'm surprised at how averse I've become to dealing with even the tiny load lag + few-second wait for a pre-roll. I've considered switching to Spotify, since Google Play Music seems to be one of those life-support products that PMs within Google make their promotions off of through useless UI churn instead of fixing longstanding issues, but at this point, YT Red is what stops me from doing so.