YouTube has recently stirred up a storm in regards to its new methods of preventing ad-block which block users from watching videos with an ad blocker. Since this came into place many ad-block providers have been creating workarounds starting a war between the two but one unexpected part of this war involves the long-dead Windows Phone.
Windows Phone Circumvents Ad Block
I used to own the Windows Phone and besides from its sleek look it was awful, the UI was terrible and clunky and the phone had limited app support. The latter is mostly the fault of Google and funnily it has come back to bite them in the arse. Google had previously refused to support the Windows Phone OS which forced Microsoft to create its own YouTube app for the phone which ended up blocked by Google. As shared by Windowscentral.com, the long dead phone is being used against Google to bypass the YouTube ad block and disable the pop-up allowing you to continue watching as normal.
How To Bypass The Ad-Block With Windows Phone
A workaround was shared on Twitter by @endermanch which effectively involves switching your user-agent to the Windows Phone using a user-agent switcher plugin which is not against YouTubes Terms of Service. A User-Agent effectively just identifies what device, browser version and operating system you are using and why the Windows Phone is able to bypass the pop-up isn’t clear, but it likely has something to do with it not being supported. It likely won’t take YouTube long to patch this now that it is out in the open but it is one last middle finger from the Windows Phone to YouTube.
