YouTube Allegedly Hiding Skip Button, Confirms Reducing Ad Elements

The “skip button” that shows up on YouTube’s ad interface may be hidden. While some users claim that the skip button is completely absent, others have noticed that it appears after the countdown period has elapsed. According to reports, the massive video-streaming company has said that the skip button is not being tampered with. To enhance the watching experience, the business is experimenting with reducing the number of components on the ad interface. The business has also separately said that it has decided to extend the term of Shorts. The maximum duration of a short is now three minutes, rather than one.

Although YouTube’s ad interface has changed throughout the years, it now features a fairly uniform appearance. Both skippable and unskippable advertisements are included. Only the bottom bar showing the amount of time the ad has played and how much more is left is visible in the unskippable advertisements. The skippable advertisements do, however, have a few added features.

The skippable commercials contain a countdown timer that shows the least amount of time a user must view the ad (between 15 and 30 seconds). A skip button is displayed when the timer approaches zero. To swiftly get back to the video, users can hit this button. Users can skip certain skippable advertisements straight away because they don’t even have a countdown timer.

However, a Reddit user shared an image of an instance in which a black square overlay obscured the timer and the skip button. Consequently, even though the button was there, it was not visible. The skip option appeared after a few seconds, but no countdown timer was displayed, according to an Android Police complaint.

Furthermore, these are not isolated cases. A number of X users have also complained about not being able to see the skip button. Employees at Gadgets 360 haven’t noticed this yet, although it may be because the YouTube test isn’t available everywhere.

“YouTube is not hiding the skip button,” Oluwa Falodun, a YouTube spokeswoman, told The Verge. As usual, the button for skippable advertisements displays five seconds into viewing. However, the spokesman emphasized that in order to improve audience engagement with the ad’s content, the video streaming platform is removing components from the ad player. The skip countdown timer would now show up at the bottom of the screen as a progress bar as part of the modification.

The lack of a skip button that customers have seen thus far could have been an error in the change’s implementation. Nevertheless, unless YouTube offers a formal justification for this modification, the situation remains unclear.

Regarding the adjustments, Falodun claims that YouTube is “reducing elements on the ads player” in order to provide “a cleaner experience that allows viewers to engage more deeply with the ad.” The countdown timer to skip an advertisement may also “appear as a progress bar on the bottom of the screen” for users on desktop and mobile devices. It appears that the skip button isn’t being eliminated in this case, although it might not be shown the same way as before.

The fact that YouTube is not concealing the skip button is comforting, but the platform is actively changing the locations and formats of advertisements. For instance, the firm eliminated certain ad limits for artists last year, and now the pause screen is open to advertisements. YouTube has also begun taking action against people who use ad blockers to avoid advertisements. Of course, purchasing YouTube Premium may be the simplest option to get rid of advertisements, but the cost continues going higher.