Google is cracking down on third-party apps that block YouTube ads

In context: Google began ramping up its crackdown on ad blockers last year when it started restricting YouTube video playback for people using ad-blocking software. The company is now expanding that crackdown to cover third-party apps that let users stream YouTube videos while skipping all advertising.

In a support document, Google said that users attempting to access YouTube videos through third-party apps with built-in ad-blocking could experience buffering issues or see an error that reads "The following content is not available on this app."

Google also stated that it only allows developers to use the official YouTube API as long as they follow its terms of service, which do not allow third-party apps to turn off ads. The company warned that it will take "appropriate action" against apps that violate these terms, but did not explicitly state what those actions might be.

Google also noted that some users might want ...