Robert Triggs / Android Authority
TL;DR
The YouTube mobile app is starting to hide the countdown timer and grayed-out skip button when playing ads. The skip button only appears and becomes skippable after the user has watched a certain part of the ad. This may encourage users to focus on the content of your ad instead of focusing on the obsolete countdown timer.
It’s no secret that Google really wants you to pay for its YouTube Premium service. In addition to adding exclusive features to paid versions, the platform makes free services even more difficult to use, forcing viewers to subscribe. In its latest experiment, YouTube is hiding the countdown timer and grayed out skip button when playing ads on its mobile app. When a user watches enough ads, a skip button suddenly appears.
According to Android Police, the mobile version of YouTube is currently hiding countdown timers when playing ads for some users. This change appears to have been made to encourage viewers to focus on the ad itself, rather than when they can skip it. So instead of locking the skip button behind a visible timer, the button suddenly appears when the user watches a certain part of the ad.
Interestingly, users can use the yellow seek bar at the bottom of the video to guess when a YouTube ad will become skippable. This subtly delivers the information you need without distracting users from sponsored content.
As with most new YouTube introductions, this change to how ads work on mobile appears to be a limited test. The company doesn’t seem to have officially announced this, and not all users are aware of it. It remains to be seen whether Google will discontinue it or make it available to all users.
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