These 10 Apps Let You Watch YouTube Without Ads

YouTube is great—except for the annoying, unskippable ads. And after the introduction of YouTube Premium, it seems like the number of unskippable ads for free accounts keeps going up. If you don’t want to sit through three ads just so you can watch your video, it might be time to try a different approach.

There are several great third-party YouTube apps and tools that will give you a great ad-free YouTube experience—and they’ll do it for free.

YouTube Premium and Premium Lite

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first. YouTube Premium is the best and only way to remove all ads from YouTube videos on all the platforms that you use (including smart TVs). No other tool will offer that.

But it does come at a cost, and that cost keeps rising. As of writing, you can snag a subscription for $15.99 per month. If your household would all benefit from a subscription, you could consider a YouTube Premium Family plan for $26.99 a month, which lets six users share the same ad-free experience. But, like Netflix, YouTube Premium also deters password sharing, and it only works if all the members live at the same residential address as the account manager.

YouTube also has a cheaper $7.99 per month plan now in the form of YouTube Premium Lite, which promises an ad-free viewing experience for most non-music YouTube videos.

You can also try subscribing to YouTube Premium from a country where the rates are low. In countries like Argentina, India, and Turkey, YouTube Premium costs less than $2 per month. Install a VPN, change the location, and try your luck subscribing to the cheaper plans.

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is quickly becoming the anti-AI browser. Unlike Chrome, the privacy-focused browser lets you choose exactly how many AI features show up in DuckDuckGo Search and the browser (there's an option to disable all AI features as well).

Now, the company has integrated a YouTube ad blocker directly into the browser on the desktop and on mobile apps. DuckDuckGo is directly integrating community filters from uBlock Origin, making sure to cover a wide net of ads on the platform. And because there is no third-party extension, you don't need to worry about ad-blocking extensions being deprecated (as in Chrome). DuckDuckGo should be able to block most of the pre-roll and mid-roll ads on YouTube.

And the feature is enabled by default for the desktop and the iOS apps. If you're on Android, you'll need to enable it manually. Make sure that you're running the latest version of DuckDuckGo and then go to Settings > Ad Blocking, and enable the ad blocker.

NewPipe

NewPipe is perhaps the best way to watch YouTube ad-free on Android. This is not a modded YouTube app. Instead, it’s a separate, free, and open-source player for YouTube. NewPipe is lightweight, but offers the features you care most about: background playback; picture-in-picture; and, of course, no ads.

While the app isn’t available in the Play Store, you can directly download the APK installer from their website, or you can find the app on the F-Droid app store—an alternate to Google Play Store that hosts free and open-source apps.

The app has an option to import your subscriptions, but you can’t sign in using your YouTube account.

SkyTube

SkyTube is another free and open-source third-party YouTube app for Android, just like NewPipe. It also offers the basic features you’ll want, including ad-blocking and background payback.

The downside is that SkyTube is a view-only app; you can’t sign into your YouTube account, so there’s no sync feature. The app does have its own feature for channel subscriptions and bookmarks. On the other hand, there’s a version of SkyTube called SkyTube Extra, which is also free, and supports the official YouTube player and casting features.

LibreTube

You can think of LibreTube (also Android only) as a NewPipe app but with a modern interface. It has a bottom tab bar, updated icons, and an overall smooth operation. This level of fit and finish is something that’s usually lacking in other popular YouTube apps. It supports SponsorBlock, so sponsored sections can be skipped as well. Plus, it has extra features like chapter selection. This, too, is a free and open-source client.

Firefox Browser with uBlock Origin

Unlike Chrome on Android, Firefox actually supports extensions, and a single extension can change your entire YouTube experience. If you don’t mind using YouTube on the web (you can’t access it offline), you can install the popular ad-blocker uBlock Origin to automatically block all ads on YouTube.

Download the uBlock Origin add-on, then go to Menu > Add-ons > and enable uBlock Origin.

Brave Browser

If you don’t want to use an extension, you can use a browser that has a built-in ad-blocker. Now, you’ll find many browsers that do this on the Play Store and App Store, but it would be best to use a trusted browser here. Brave Browser is a highly regarded privacy browser that also comes with a great ad-block feature that works on Android, iPhone, and PC. As long as you have the Shields Up feature enabled for YouTube, you won’t see ads in your videos anymore.

AdGuard for iPhone

Thanks to the way iOS is set up, there’s no easy way to install an unofficial YouTube app like you can on Android. But if you’re okay using YouTube in Safari, you can remove ads using Safari extensions. Here too, you’ll find multiple trusted apps that do the job. AdGuard is a good option, as they have a specific feature built-in for removing all YouTube ads. After the extension is set up, go to YouTube.com, tap the Share button, and choose the Block YouTube Ads (by AdGuard) option.

SmartTube for Smart TVs

So you've blocked YouTube ads in your browser, and on your smartphone. But what's more annoying than sitting through long, unskippable ads when you're listening to lo-fi music? Thankfully, there is a workaround here. If you have an Android-based smart TV or streaming box (Amazon Fire TV devices sold after October 2025 aren't supported), you can simply install the SmartTube app (previously called SmartTubeNext) to act as a YouTube replacement. You will have to manually sideload the app, but once that’s done, you can say goodbye to all the ads.

SponsorBlock

SponsorBlock is both a browser extension and a service embedded in a couple of YouTube replacement apps we’ve covered above (like LibreTube). It does one thing, and one thing only: crowdsources data for sponsor segments in videos, and lets you automatically skip through those sections. Chances are, if you’re watching a remotely popular channel, SponsorBlock will recognize the sponsor segment. If you can’t stand watching another 45-second ad for Squarespace, this is the extension for you.

This Self-Cleaning iRobot Roomba Is 50% Off Right Now

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The iRobot Roomba 505X vacuum-and-mop combo is down to $499.99 on Amazon, half off its $999.99 list price and the lowest price tracked so far, according to price trackers. The main appeal is not just that it vacuums and mops in one pass, but that it takes care of much of the mess that comes after—its AutoWash Dock empties the dust bin, refills the robot with clean water, drains the dirty water, washes the mop pads, and heat-dries them once the run is done. For a household with pets, kids, or a kitchen floor that collects crumbs and paw prints no matter what, that cuts down on a lot of the upkeep that usually falls on you between cleanings.

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The 505X should be a noticeable step up if you are coming from an older basic Roomba—iRobot says it has 70 times the suction of the Roomba 600 series, but the more useful difference is its PrecisionVision obstacle avoidance AI, which is designed to steer around the usual household hazards: cords, socks, and the occasional pet accident. From there, it handles the actual floor work with dual spinning mop pads for everyday grime, plus a multi-surface rubber brush and edge-sweeping brush for pet hair, crumbs, and dust along baseboards. The mop pads lift when the robot crosses carpet or rugs, so it can move from tile or hardwood to fabric without dragging wet pads across the wrong surface.

That mix of floor handling and room control is where the app becomes useful—you can schedule cleanings, set no-mop zones, choose vacuum-only or mop-only runs, and send the robot to specific rooms instead of cleaning the whole house every time. That said, this is not a full replacement for a stick vacuum or steam cleaner: Dried-on spills and stuck-on messes will still require a hand scrub. Also, the dock needs a permanent home near an outlet, and iRobot recommends enough clearance around it for the robot to park and empty properly, so this might not be the best fit for a cramped apartment or narrow hallway.

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I Tried ChatGPT's Improved Voice Mode, and It's More Natural Than Ever

The latest upgrade being pushed out to ChatGPT, heading to all users now, is GPT‑Live. OpenAI is describing it as a "new generation" of voice models for interacting with the AI chatbot, and you might find that it leads you to spend more time chatting than typing.

Voice mode for ChatGPT is nothing new, but previously it's been a relatively basic wrapper on top of the standard text input and output. It has been billed as a more natural way to engage with the AI, but GPT-Live promises to dial this fluidity up to an even higher level.

For the first time, the voice mode will be able to think in the background while continuing the conversation. It'll also give you extra space to pause when you need it, and indicate it's still listening with phrases like “mhmm” or “yeah."

You should find the upgrade on mobile and the web now (or very soon). Free users get access to GPT‑Live‑1 mini, while those on paid plans are able to access the even smarter GPT‑Live‑1 model.

How GPT-Live works

OpenAI's end goal is to make talking to ChatGPT feel like talking to a real person, and GPT-Live gets closer to that. Originally, interacting with the AI via voice required a specific model for speech-to-text, another for actually responding to the query, and another for text-to-speech.

The previous voice mode in ChatGPT combined all of that into a single AI model, but it was still turn-based: You spoke, the chatbot answered, then you spoke again. With GPT-Live, ChatGPT can be talking and listening at the same time. You can interrupt it as and when needed, and responses should be faster and more nuanced.

The new voice mode is supposedly smarter when it comes to recognizing the difference between you pausing mid-thought and actually finishing your query. The model now recalculates several times a second "whether to speak, continue listening, pause, interrupt, or invoke a tool."

Credit: OpenAI

An added benefit of the upgrade is that even complex work and deep thinking can be passed back to ChatGPT's servers in the background, while the conversation is continuing. You can also tell ChatGPT to take a beat or slow down; visual responses have been improved as well, so you might, for example, see pop-up cards for locations, weather forecasts, and sports scores.

You can also now ask GPT-Live to translate something into a foreign language as you speak. Thanks to the new capabilities, you'll hear a running translation in the other language as you talk, with no pauses or interruptions. Improvements have also been made in terms of ignoring background noise (like background traffic or conversations happening nearby).

Testing out GPT-Live

To get to voice mode in the mobile app, tap the soundwave-style icon to the right of the prompt box. The new mode looks a lot like the old one on the surface, but with this update, you should see Live at the top of the screen (for the time being, at least, you can tap this to switch back to the older models).

Right away, the upgraded voice mode feels more realistic and natural. ChatGPT will talk in a varied and expressive way, throwing in useful markers like "let me check" whenever it's looking something up. It'll lso hesitate and draw words out at times.

I chatted with GPT-Live for several minutes about upcoming movies, recent soccer matches, and tech news headlines, and got back answers that made sense and were respectfully brief (voice mode continues to be a refuge for those who don't want to see walls of text for every response).

There are three 'intelligence' levels to choose between. Credit: OpenAI

There were a couple of moments where the speech glitched and the conversation hung, but that was in about half an hour of chatting (presumably these bugs will get ironed out over time). Interruptions are handled well too, with the AI pausing to acknowledge what you've said and then continuing its train of thought.

You can tweak the level of thinking ChatGPT puts into the new voice mode: Tap the sliders icon (top right), then tap Intelligence. There are three modes to pick from—Instant, Medium, and High—with varying levels of trade-off between the speed of the response and how detailed and accurate it is.

This Compact Anker Portable Power Station Is 50% Off Right Now

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Amazon has the Anker Solix S2000 portable power station for $599.99 right now, down from its $1,199 list price, and price trackers show this is the lowest it has gone so far. For that price, you are getting a 2kWh battery (meant for the things you would miss fast during an outage, like a refrigerator, router, lights, fan, laptop, or CPAP machine) in a unit that weighs 35.7 pounds. That is still heavy enough that you won't want to carry it across a campsite all afternoon, but it's much easier to store in a closet or move around the house than many large backup batteries.

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It delivers 1,500W of continuous output, which is enough for most everyday devices and many household appliances. Anker says it can keep a refrigerator running for up to 35 hours, though your real runtime will depend on the fridge, the room temperature, and how often the door opens. Its outlet layout is also more practical than it looks at first, with eight power outlets split between the front and rear, so you can keep always-on appliances plugged in at the back while using the front ports for devices you connect and unplug often. That said, this is not the battery I would buy for running multiple high-wattage devices like microwaves and hair dryers at the same time.

Once the battery runs low, you have several ways to recharge it. The S2000 accepts power from a wall outlet, solar panels (up to 400W), a generator, a vehicle, or a combination of AC and solar. As for its management, you can keep an eye on everything via its companion app, which lets you monitor battery levels, control individual outlets, and adjust power settings over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. One potential drawback is the missing 12V DC car socket, which could bother van campers or anyone with car-powered accessories. For most homes, though, the Solix S2000 is a compact emergency backup battery that is easier to justify at $599.99 than at full price.

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Meta Now Lets Anyone Generate AI Images With Your Instagram Posts, but You Can Stop It

On Tuesday, Meta announced its new Muse Image model, the first release from "Meta Superintelligence Labs." With the new image model, Meta promises to create hyperrealistic images, posters, and even videos—once Muse Video launches, anyway. All of that is par for the course for a major AI company. But as Wired reports, there’s something weird going on with how it integrates with public Instagram profiles.

How Meta's new Instagram image generation feature works

By default, anyone using Meta AI can create an image using the likeness of a public Instagram account, which they can then share via chat, Stories, or the Instagram feed. This doesn’t have to be a celebrity or a famous person, either (in fact, some celebrity profiles are restricted from this feature). So long as it's public, your personal Instagram profile is fair game here. Google has a similar feature, but it’s limited to the user themself, and it only works after an approval process. There are no such guardrails here.

This is quite a big privacy issue. Every public profile is automatically opted into this new feature, without their consent. If you're using Meta AI features on Instagram, you're in on this as well. For Meta, the distinction is clear. If you’re posting anything publicly, they can use it on their AI platform. Of course, creating an image out of two different faces is nothing new. You can just upload two profile images and get the same effect. But Meta is making this trivially easy on a very large scale.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

I tested this out in a couple of ways. First, I tried to make an image of me in a fight scene with Robert Downey Jr. The AI refused, perhaps because of image rights. Then, I asked Meta AI to create an image with me and my colleague Pranay Parab. That wasn’t possible because he has a private profile (more on that later).

Lastly, I asked it to create an image of me having coffee with my friend Dhaval, who owns a cafe, and has a public profile. That image was created in just under a minute, and was based on recent images uploaded by Dhaval and me on our respective profiles (both a couple of years old at this point). It's obviously easy to use, but can you turn it off?

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

How to stop people from using your Instagram profile in their AI images

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

If you have a private Instagram profile, this isn’t something you need to worry about—beyond a mutual taking your photos for their own AI usage. If you have a public profile, you need to disable a setting that lets Meta use your profile data for Meta AI and Reels generation.

Open the Instagram app on your iPhone, go to your Profile and tap the three-lined Menu button in the top-right corner. Go to Sharing and Reuse and navigate to the section called Allow people to reuse your content on Instagram and with AI features at Meta. Here, disable the Posts and Reels feature.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

The good news is that this does work. I tried it on my Instagram coffee page that I rarely use. When I was logged into my personal profile on Meta, I asked Meta AI to create an image of me brewing coffee using my coffee page handle, and it refused, saying it doesn’t have the right to do that. This, of course, should be the default.

This Job Interview Scam Is a Ploy to Steal Your Google Credentials

It's rough out there for job seekers, and scammers are preying on candidates hoping to get hired by well-known companies. A new phishing campaign uses fake interview invites—impersonating brands like Adidas, Netflix, Adobe, and FIFA—to steal users' Google account credentials.

Employment scams are nothing new, and they come in a variety of flavors, from fake job offers sent via text to fake applications distributed via Google Forms. Netflix impersonators even ran a similar recruitment email campaign last year. Bad actors are typically trying to phish personal information or convince you to send them money for various (fake) onboarding expenses.

How the fake job interview scam works

As BleepingComputer reports, this job scam primarily targets marketing professionals looking for positions with high-value companies across multiple sectors, including tech, hospitality, travel, food, entertainment, and luxury goods.

The fraud begins with a phishing email from a "recruiter" at one of more than 34 companies, inviting candidates to schedule a meeting to discuss further. Scammers appear to be using the names and photos of real recruiters at these companies, making them less likely to raise suspicion if targets try to verify their legitimacy.

If a job seeker clicks the link to the recruiter's calendar, they'll be redirected multiple times and ultimately land on a malicious website designed to look like a real interview scheduling page. From there, they'll be prompted to sign in with Google, which launches a fake login interface that looks like Google's authentication pop-up but is actually just part of the phishing page. (This is an example of a browser-in-the-browser (BitB) attack.)

Threat actors appear to be using a legitimate HR platform called PeopleForce and a domain operated by Salesforce to initiate the scam, though it's not clear whether they created accounts or are using stolen credentials.

Signs of a fake job scam

Like all scams, this one preys on emotion, like the excitement of being recruited for a highly desirable position in a competitive job market. If you receive an unsolicited message from a recruiter, whether via email, LinkedIn, or some other social platform, proceed with caution—especially if you haven't applied for a job or the opportunity sounds too good to be true. If you're not sure, go directly to the company's careers page to find the listing.

Just because a calendar or application link appears to go to a legitimate site doesn't mean you're safe. Obviously, scammers have many ways of spoofing URLs or redirecting traffic so you don't realize you're being phished. Look carefully at the address bar on the final window for sneaky characters or other URL tricks.

If you're being prompted to enter single sign-on credentials (such as Apple, Google, or Facebook) to schedule an interview or fill out an application, this is a red flag. Try to interact with the pop-up, such as by dragging it away from the main browser window or highlighting the URL. If you can't, it's likely a fake. A password manager can also protect against BitB attacks, as these tools won't fill credentials, except on the legitimate domain.

This Massive 85-Inch Toshiba Mini-LED TV Is 30% Off Right Now

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Big-screen TVs usually come with equally big price tags, which is what makes this deal on the 2026 Toshiba Z670R worth a closer look. The 85-inch model has dropped to $1,197.99 from its regular $1,699.99 price, marking the lowest price recorded so far according to price trackers. And if 85 inches feels too large (or not large enough), Toshiba has also discounted the 55-, 65-, 75-, and 100-inch versions of the same TV. Positioned near the top of Toshiba's lineup, the Z670R is built for buyers who want a large-screen home theater setup without paying OLED-level prices.

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The Z670R backs up that positioning with a feature set that feels more premium than its current price suggests—it combines a 4K Mini-LED panel with QLED color technology, a native 144Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10+, and Dolby Atmos support. The Mini-LED backlight is arguably the most important feature here. By using thousands of smaller LEDs and local dimming zones, the TV delivers a stronger HDR performance when watching movies, sports, or modern video games—bright highlights like sunlight, explosions, or stadium lighting have more impact while darker scenes retain more detail than you'd typically get from a standard LED display.

The Z670R is also surprisingly well-equipped for gaming. The native 144Hz panel helps keep motion sharp during fast-paced gameplay, while AMD FreeSync Premium and Auto Low Latency Mode help reduce screen tearing and input lag when connected to a compatible console or gaming PC. Also, a screen this large can feel far more immersive, especially for racing games, sports titles, and open-world adventures. The TV uses Amazon's Fire TV as its smart TV platform, giving users access to major streaming services without needing an external streaming stick. Voice control through Alexa is built in, and the interface will be familiar to anyone who has used a Fire TV device before. Toshiba has also included a 50-watt 2.1-channel speaker system with a dedicated bass woofer, which delivers fuller sound than what you'll find on many TVs in this category. It won't replace a dedicated surround sound setup, but it's good enough that you may not feel the need to add a soundbar right away.

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