- A simple trick can be used to bypass YouTube Ads.
- This trick works on desktop version of YouTube however you too can use it on mobile devices.
- This trick was first posted on r/webdev subreddit.
Yes you heard it right, now you can use this simple trick to block YouTube Ads for free. Also you don’t have to install any software or plugins for this, just add one symbol after the domain.
This trick was first posted in r/webdev subreddit by u/unicorn4sale. The post by u/unicorn4sale explains,
“It’s a commonly forgotten edge case, websites forget to normalize the hostname, the content is still served, but there’s no hostname match on the browser so no cookies and broken CORS – and lots of bigger sites use a different domain to serve ads/media with a whitelist that doesn’t contain the extra dot”
Yes, the trick involves just adding a full stop after the domain name in the URL. Let me explain with the help of one example. Suppose if you want to view this YouTube video ads free https://www.youtube.com/watch?[…] then you have to simply add one dot (.) after .com and before forward-slash (/).
Here is the ads free url after adding (.) to the URL https://www.youtube.com./watch?[…]
However this trick not only works on desktop browsers but you can also use it on mobile browsers. To block YouTube ads on mobile devices just you have to do is to use “Request Desktop Site” feature.
Example:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?[…] /// will show ads occasionally
https://www.youtube.com./watch?[…] /// will not show ads
According to the post, I had initially assumed that it didn’t work on mobile because the browsers normalized the URL, however this isn’t the case. The redirection happens on the server side. So, if you want this to work on mobile browsers, use the “Request Desktop Site” feature.
Please keep in mind that many YouTube creators use adverts for their living so use this trick responsibly.