YouTube says it is ‘not hiding the skip button’ on ads

Some YouTube users have observed the platform making it harder to skip ads in recent days. On Reddit, a user reported seeing black rectangles over the skip button on desktop instead of the expected countdown timer, and a few days later, Android Police reported not seeing a countdown to skip on mobile.

But in statements to The Verge, YouTube says it isn’t removing the skip button — it’s just changing some elements of how ads are displayed.

“YouTube is not hiding the skip button,” YouTube spokesperson Oluwa Falodun says in a statement to The Verge. “On skippable ads, the button appears after 5 seconds into playback, as always.”

As for the changes, Falodun says that YouTube is “reducing elements on the ads player” so that “viewers can engage more deeply with the ad through a cleaner experience.” Users on both desktop and mobile may also see the countdown timer to skip an ad “appear as a progress bar on the bottom of the screen.” The distinction here seems to be that the skip button isn’t being removed, but it may not be presented in the same manner that it used to.

While it’s reassuring that the company isn’t hiding the skip button, YouTube is actively expanding where and how you see ads. The pause screen is fair game for ads now, for example, and last year, the company removed some ad controls for creators. YouTube has also been cracking down on using ad blockers to dodge ads. Of course, perhaps the easiest way to remove ads is to pay for YouTube Premium, but the price for that keeps creeping up.