Google brings YouTube Vanced to an end in its war against third-party YouTube apps

The team behind the YouTube Vanced app has announced its discontinuation, a few days after its fourth birthday. To recap, YouTube Vanced allowed people to block all adverts on YouTube without subscribing to YouTube Premium. Additionally, the app includes an AMOLED dark mode, Picture in Picture, returns the dislike button and contains numerous customisation options.

As the embedded tweet below shows, the Vanced team will be removing all download links 'in the coming days'. However, existing installations will continue to work; YouTube Vanced's discontinuation does not affect these. For reference, the Vanced team notes that there should be no issues for '2 years of so', until the apps become outdated.

While the Vanced team cites 'legal reasons' as the reason behind the end of the application, The Verge explains that Google recently sent Vanced a cease and desist letter. Apparently, Google asked Vanced to

...remove all references to ‘YouTube’, change the logo, and remove all links related to YouTube products.

YouTube Vanced is one of many third-party YouTube apps that Google has shut down, such as the Groovy and Rythm Discord bots. Other apps like myTube! remain, although they also have issues with keeping the dislike button active.

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