YouTube Vanced Discontinued By Devs As Memers Grieve The Passing Of The Ad-Free YouTube Application

YouTube Vanced, an Android app that allowed users to watch YouTube videos without ads, was suddenly discontinued following a request from Google. For the time being, the app will continue to work for people who have already installed it, but within the next few years, it will cease to function everywhere.

The news was announced on the application’s official Twitter account yesterday in a thread that also cited there were "legal reasons" behind the move.

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

Loyal fans and users of the application grieved its passing with memes, using formats such as the classic Death and the Dog, commemorating the good times and expressing their respect for what Vanced added to their lives.

https://t.co/1sauOjo53S

— Shetoshi Nakamoto (@Shetoshinkmto) March 14, 2022

Não acredito cara, o YouTube Vanced será descontinuado 😭😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/S0Jy1502S6

— she's a maneater (@kkjleemy) March 13, 2022

F for YouTube Vanced 😔 pic.twitter.com/Oxel7XUaDT

— Nokia Mobile Parody (@HMDGlobalParody) March 13, 2022

Many attributed the takedown of Vanced to the app’s minting of an NFT last month in an attempt to earn money and gain publicity. The developers behind Vanced apologized for catching “the NFT illness” and making “a huge mistake,” but the damage was already done among some users as the app that aimed to “bring justice in the world we live in” is gone.

google sent the cease and desist because of vanced nft pic.twitter.com/oTAncclCOu

— DarkPlayer 💙💛 (@dvrkplayer) March 13, 2022

An important letter from our team: pic.twitter.com/MCvt6xjU58

— Vanced Official (@YTVanced) February 17, 2022

Vanced died because the team decided to make a NFT in violation of all common sense which suddenly gave Google the grounds to swoop in with a C&D

Fucking clown world https://t.co/kDsL7OLArj pic.twitter.com/3OfiBSYT8b

— FalKoopa🌈 (@FalKoopa_) March 13, 2022

The Vanced team posted a link to YouTube Premium, encouraging users to start paying for ad-free service. For some, it was apparently the first time they’d ever contemplated doing so.

Tech Twitter Today

YT Vanced users questioning whether YT creators use pirated services or not pic.twitter.com/V4YFPSDaI6

— techgotsarcasm (@techgotsarcasm) March 14, 2022

Between the ad-blocker extension on my computer and youtube-vanced on my phone I almost forgot youtube videos have ads,this is a sad day pic.twitter.com/Fd2Agmi741

— Fideriks1910 (@Fideriks) March 14, 2022

Many of Vanced’s loyal users will likely flock to others apps promising similar services or even take the plunge and use regular YouTube. The end of Vanced is also the end of an era, and people online had a lot of feelings about that.

RIP YouTube Vanced pic.twitter.com/dSz7vBAXHQ

— Dank Memes (@theMemesBot) March 14, 2022

I JUST GOT ON VANCED https://t.co/crjtUkisen pic.twitter.com/rgx3rV2l9D

— Barry (@Yeezywaste) March 13, 2022