The most popular Vanced YouTube app has this week been discontinued, after a legal threat from Google. The creators of the app have come out to announce that the project will be shut down in the coming days, with download links set to be removed. While the app will continue to work for anyone who currently has it installed on Android, without any future updates it’s likely to stop working at some point soon. The Vanced owners say they’ve had to discontinue the project “due to legal reasons.”
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The app is mainly popular for users of Android devices that don’t have access to the Google products like Gmail, YouTube, or Google Maps (I am talking about mainly Huawei phones for now, who were banned from using Google products).
Google sent the 3rd party YouTube app creates a cease and desist letter recently, which has forced the developers to stop distributing and developing the app. “We were asked to remove all references to ‘YouTube’, change the logo, and remove all links related to YouTube products,” says an admin from the Vanced team in a Discord message to The Verge.
Vanced is a popular third-party YouTube app for Android, particularly because it allows YouTube users to block all video ads on YouTube without a Premium subscription. The apps also comes with a true black theme, and customizations not offered in the official YouTube for Android app.
“Vanced has been discontinued,” reads a Telegram message from the Vanced owners. “We know this is not something you wanted to hear, but it’s something we need to do.” We’ve reached out to Google to comment on the discontinuation of Vanced, and we’ll update you accordingly.
“DISCONTINUATION OF THE VANCED PROJECT
Vanced has been discontinued. In the coming days, the download links will be taken down. The Discord server, Telegram chat and subreddit will stay for the time being. We know this is not something you wanted to hear, but it’s something we had to do. We want to thank you all for the support over the years.
Edit (1): The existing version will continue to work.
Edit (2): It was done due to legal reasons.”
