Popular YouTube client, YouTube Vanced, that allowed users to enjoy an ad-free experience on mobile for free has finally come to an end. Possibly succumbed under Google’s pressure, today, the Vanced team officially announced that it will be shutting down the app permanently. All download links and pages will be taken down and there will be no way to download the app after a few days. According to the developers, this decision was taken due to “legal reasons“. Before this, you could download the app (APK) from the Vanced website on Android devices.
Vanced has been discontinued. In the coming days, the download links on the website will be taken down. We know this is not something you wanted to hear but it's something we need to do. Thank you all for supporting us over the years.
— Vanced Official (@YTVanced) March 13, 2022
It was only inevitable
The app has been under scrutiny for a while as it technically wasn’t the most legal thing out there. Whereas the users loved it, YouTube certainly didn’t as it went against the basic philosophy (and ToS) of the platform: ads. Creators also questioned its ethicality as their ad revenue would be completely cut off through Vanced. On top of that, YouTube Vanced had a lot of extra features and goodies that enhanced the experience even further.
Most of those were part of YouTube Premium, such as Picture-in-Picture overlay and the ability to play videos even with the phone locked, but Vanced offered all these for free. And it had further customization options not seen in the official YouTube app as well, like a true black theme. There’s even a SponsorBlock API that automatically skips intros, outros, ads, self-promotions, and sponsors that are part of the video and put in there by the creator themselves.
Therefore, Vanced was most likely under Google’s radar for a long time, they just never bothered going after it because it was mostly a niche application. The userbase, while passionate, wasn’t anything notable to a business as large as Google so it wasn’t worth going through all the legal troubles to purse this case. There simply wasn’t enough of an effect that would warrant taking action. However, during the past year, Vanced grew exponentially as word got around, and the downloads skyrocketed to the point where it must’ve become impossible for Google to just ignore it.
It’s important to note that the Vanced team never explicitly mentioned that Google or YouTube pressured them into shutting down Vanced; “legal reasons” are vaguely cited as the cause behind all this. But I don’t think we need the intellect of a rocket scientist to figure this out for ourselves. It’s basically next to confirmed that Google was involved in the discontinuation of Vanced as it grew in popularity. In fact, it was a common notion within the community to mention the app as much or it would garner too much attention forcing a legal reaction. Google already forced music bots off Discord that would play songs from YouTube last year, so it makes perfect sense that Vanced saw a similar fate.
Cease (and desist) the operations
The Verge reached out to the Vanced team on Telegram and they were told that Google sent Vanced a cease and desist letter recently. According to an admin on the channel, Vanced was “asked to remove all references to ‘YouTube’, change the logo, and remove all links related to YouTube products“. The Verge has asked Google for comment on this directly and we’ll update the article accordingly if anything comes up. But, this certainly does prove that Google finally took notice and went after Vanced right as it was going through its honeymoon period. The modding community can’t make another Vanced, at least not quickly as Vanced was the result of years of hard work, labor and love that translated into a mature and polished app, better in every way than the stock one.
Worst of all, Vanced is a close-sourced project which is rare amongst these niche-popular apps and services. This means that someone else can’t just access the source code and continue what Vanced started on their own. As long as the code is sealed behind closed doors, it will hard to replicate something as close to perfect as Vanced. That being said, the app is expected to work for almost two years if YouTube doesn’t make changes to its API before that. If you already have Vanced installed, it will continue to work for now. For what it was worth, Vanced was truly one of the best apps one could have on their phone and its absence will certainly be missed. So long, legend.
Currently installed versions will work just fine, until they become outdated in 2 years or so.
— Vanced Official (@YTVanced) March 13, 2022
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