DuckDuckGo announced on Wednesday that its free web browser now blocks most video ads on YouTube, and the feature is enabled by default for iPhone and Mac users running the latest version of the app.
Tired of ads interrupting your videos? Us, too. The DuckDuckGo browser now blocks most video ads, including on YouTube! This new feature blocks ads that run before and during your videos, letting you watch YouTube without the interruptions.
DuckDuckGo says features like viewing history and saving your spot in playlists keep working. It should be noted that tapping a YouTube link on the iPhone often results in opening the video in the actual YouTube app, where the blocking feature does not work. You/ll need to make sure you open the link inside the DuckDuckGo browsers to benefit from the ad blocker.
DuckDuckGo says to detect and block YouTube ads, it uses community-driven filter lists sourced from uBlock Origin, which are maintained by an active open-source community and are regularly updated. Users may see some additional buffering times, which is standard with many ad blockers. However, once your video loads, you won’t be interrupted with ads.
DuckDuckGo is certainly not the first browser to block YouTube ads, as similar features already available in the Brave and Opera browsers.
DuckDuckGo’s browser offers several other privacy protections and is available free for iOS devices on the App Store and for Mac on the Mac App Store and the DuckDuckGo website.