Google Discover doesn’t care if you have YouTube Premium, it still shoves ads in your face
By Sam Zell-Breier
Published 1. June 2024
Google should treat YouTube
Premium members a little better on Discover
Whether you like it or not, an endless scroll of content is now the norm. It's an easy way to hook you in, so naturally, Google joined the party in the form of Discover. Sure, some may find this feature bothersome. They may want to get rid of the Google Discover page in favor of a more basic search experience, but I really don't mind it. What I do mind, however, is paying for a service to get rid of ads, only to have my premium login disregarded when I play a video via Discover. Yeah, it happens, and it's really annoying.
YouTube Premium's main selling point is ad-free videos
If this is what you're paying for, that's what you should get, period
YouTube Premium offers several features, including access to its music app and the ability to save videos for offline viewing. While these are great on their own, I think it's safe to say that ads are what drive most people to bite the bullet and pay for Premium. In fact, if you go to the official YouTube Premium page, what is the first highlighted benefit? "Unlimited ad-free videos," of course. But apparently, that doesn't carry over to videos launched through Google Discover, and it really should.
You can be logged into a Google account that has a paid Premium subscription, either in the Google app or on the leftmost home screen of devices that integrate Google's feed, but if you play a video from Discover, the player that pops up doesn't verify your subscription status. It's a minor thing, sure. But since most users likely sign up for a service to avoid ads, it feels like a slap in the face when they're greeted by said ads.
The whole point of a scrolling feed like this is to receive quick snippets of content related to your interests. Often, we're checking Google Discover when we're on a train or a bus, in a waiting room, or generally killing time (while wearing earbuds of course — be mindful of those around you!). In situations like these, time may be limited, and it shouldn't be wasted on ads you're paying good money to avoid.
Premium users have encountered this before
Still, Google should know better
The problem here is that when you play a video in your Google Discover feed, it doesn't take you to the YouTube app. Instead, your video is launched in a mini-player.
We've encountered similar issues in the past when launching YouTube videos from external apps on Android TVs. For example, if you were to play something you found while browsing Hopwatch for Reddit, there was no way to sign into your YouTube account before your video started, leading to ads being shown.
Thankfully, this was eventually addressed, but why are we encountering a similar issue with a Google app? Google owns YouTube. It makes sense that a third-party app might not have this functionality out of the box, but Google Discover has no excuse. Perhaps this will be fixed down the road, but it should have never been a problem in the first place.
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YouTube Premium doesn't have an entry-level tier, which means we pay top-dollar to avoid ads. We shouldn't encounter any ads on YouTube, regardless of where we watch. It's the principle of the matter.
If Google isn't doing everything it can to provide this for its Premium members, perhaps it shouldn't be charging as much as it does.
Google Discover could be great
Unfortunately, ads get in the way
As I suggested before, I enjoy Google Discover. It's a convenient way to kill time. Google Discover takes your interests and shows you things you want to see. I can't complain when I'm given a steady stream of articles and videos related to fast food, Star Trek, and new movies. But if I see a clip from the latest Jean-Claude Van Damme flick and I suspect there will be an ad, I'll sadly have to move on. Sorry JCVD, I hope you can forgive me.
https://www.androidpolice.com/google-discover-shows-youtube-ads-even-for-premium-users/