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YouTube is letting viewers combat ads by banding together and engaging in chat to keep promos from playing.
Advertisements on YouTube have become an extremely controversial topic among users, with the platform most recently implementing unskippable ads that can last as long as 30 seconds.
The only way to guarantee an ad-free experience is to either subscribe to YouTube Premium, which just went up in price to $15.99 a month, or use a browser such as Brave.
Now, there’s a third way. On April 13, YouTube announced that livestream ads can be held back if viewers post in chat and get engagement up.
YouTube is holding back ads on streams with “peak” engagement
In an April 13 blog post, YouTube revealed new ways to amplify engagement, such as letting viewers send gifts through both horizontal and vertical broadcasts from their mobile devices. Gifts are also being expanded to Canada, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand.
Additionally, streamers can now go live in both vertical and horizontal formats, with viewers sharing the same single chat.
Speaking of chat, users who donate through Super Chat, Super Stickers, or gifts will be given a personal ad-free window to ensure that a streamer’s “thank you” won’t be interrupted by ads.
Live streaming is a massive part of YouTube, and that’s because of the @youtubecreators who build incredible communities on our platform.
We’re rolling out some major updates to YouTube Live to improve the experience and help creators make more money:
↔️We’re expanding Gifts to… pic.twitter.com/zu5J0Qq4kP
— Neal Mohan (@nealmohan) April 13, 2026
Finally, viewers can now work together to get an ad break by maximizing their engagement.
“Then there are those moments when the entire chat explodes with energy. To protect that collective vibe, our system now recognizes when Live Chat engagement is at its peak and automatically holds back ads for everyone,” YouTube noted.
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“This helps you keep the momentum going for the whole community without being broken up by an ad. This also works only when you have automatic ads turned on.”
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan says these updates will “improve the experience and help creators make more money.”
We’ll have to see how viewers and streamers alike take advantage of these new tools and just how often fans will be able to trigger an ad-free experience during broadcasts.
