Summary
- YouTube is rolling out a new, smaller Skip button for advertisements on multiple devices in different regions.
- The new button is nearly opaque and easier to spot than the one tested in August, but is still smaller than the outgoing design.
- The smaller button is a smaller touch target and it could take a few attempts to find the new button and familiarize yourself with it.
The biggest uphill battle for ad-supported entertainment apps ought to be ad blockers and account sharing. Netflix fought the latter with strict measures and more recently, YouTube has stepped up its fight against ad blocker utilities on all platforms. Mercifully, the platform still allows you to skip ads after watching the first few seconds. A recent change to the Skip button may not be to everyone’s taste, though.
Ad revenue keeps the lights on at YouTube offices and helps the content creators earn a living off their work. It is a sustainable and scalable business model, especially when you always have the option of paying upfront with cash for YouTube Premium, instead of time and attention for ads. Through 2023, YouTube has played around with several ad formats, including multiple consecutive unskippable segments, combinations of unskippable ones followed by ones you can dodge.
The old YouTube Skip Ads button
Although the more annoying experiments shoving marketing material in your face were quickly abandoned after backlash from users, Google made another small change that long-time YouTube viewers would be quick to notice. Back in August, the video streaming platform started testing a smaller Skip button for advertisements. The new pill-shaped button is approximately two-thirds the size of the rectangular one it replaced.
A Skip ads button was tested in August
Now, we are noticing this Skip button rolling out on multiple devices in different regions. The button looks the same on the web and on mobile, but it is noticeably different from the one YouTube was testing a few months ago. The original design YouTube tested replaced the boxy translucent Skip Ads button with an even more transparent pill containing the text Skip ads (without the uppercase A). However, the button we are seeing now is nearly opaque, and it just says Skip.
We are now seeing the wider rollout of a small Skip button
Fewer letters in the button text make it a smaller touch or click target, but to YouTube’s credit, the button is almost opaque and easy to spot. It appears in the same position as before, too, so you don’t need to hunt for it. Although we liked the prominent rectangular Skip Ads button from before, we would take this smaller button any day over a series of ads or a player UI that lacks an option to dodge ads altogether.