The free DuckDuckGo browser now blocks most video ads on YouTube

Duck, duck, go He is being pursued YouTube advertisements. The privacy-focused company announced on Wednesday that DuckDuckGo free browser Most video ads are now blocked, including ads that appear before and during YouTube videos. YouTube’s new ad blocking feature is turned on by default iPhone, Windows and Mac Users with the latest version of DuckDuckGo browser.

There are no settings to adjust to get started. DuckDuckGo says you can simply open YouTube in the browser and watch videos with fewer ad interruptions. The feature will be turned on by default for Android users soon, according to the company. Meanwhile, Android users can turn it on in their DuckDuckGo browser settings.

However, there is one important problem: it doesn’t work within the YouTube app. If the YouTube link opens in the app on your phone, you’ll need to open it YouTube.com or m.youtube.com Within the DuckDuckGo browser to use the ad blocking feature.

The company says YouTube’s ad blocking feature is powered by community-driven filter lists from Origin of uBlocka free and open source content blocker for web browsers, along with DuckDuckGo’s own rules aimed at improving compatibility and reducing breakage. DuckDuckGo also says that the feature may cause some additional buffering before the video loads, but you shouldn’t be interrupted by ads once it starts playing.

The new feature is separate from Duck playerDuckDuckGo’s built-in YouTube viewer provides a simpler viewing mode with added privacy protection. YouTube ad blocking is for the regular YouTube experience within the DuckDuckGo browser, which means features like your viewing history and saving your place in playlists should still work.

DuckDuckGo is careful to say that the feature blocks most, but not all, video ads.