News

Popular YouTube Mod Vanced Is Shutting Down Following Legal Threat

ByPriye Rai March 14, 2022March 14, 2022

Illustration: Fossbytes / Priye Rai

In a big development, Vanced has announced that it’s closing down its service after apparently facing legal threats. Apparently, the highly popular app drew the wrong kind of attention from YouTube’s parent firm, Google.

In case you didn’t know, Vanced is a modded version of YouTube that provides a ton of premium features for free. It allows you to surf YouTube’s library without ads and play the videos in the background. Moreover, it allows you to revive the dislike count that the firm ditched last year.

After recently testing new ways to fund itself, such as through NFTs, Vanced’s decision to shut down comes as a shock. The developers officially revealed the news to their fanbase on Twitter and Telegram.

In a tweet, Vanced mentioned that the app will soon be unavailable for download from its website. However, the app itself might continue working for about a couple of years. Therefore, those users who already have the app installed can breathe a sigh of relief.

Vanced has been discontinued. In the coming days, the download links on the website will be taken down. We know this is not something you wanted to hear but it's something we need to do. Thank you all for supporting us over the years.
— Vanced Official (@YTVanced) March 13, 2022

As per The Verge, an admin on the Vanced Discord channel said, “We were asked to remove all references to ‘YouTube’, change the logo, and remove all links related to YouTube products.” The source mentions that a cease-and-desist letter from Google sprung Vanced into taking this action.

As things stand, YouTube’s modded step-cousin Vanced is the latest victim of Google’s legal department. Not long ago, the tech giant lawyered two well-known Discord music bots out of business before the firm unveiled its own YouTube integration for Discord.

Although Vanced would now go offline eventually, its users still have other alternatives to look to, such as NewPipe. Those who want to do away with YouTube altogether can check out the top YouTube alternatives in 2022.

Priye Rai

Priye is a tech writer who writes about anything remotely related to tech, including gaming, smartphones, social media, etc. He prefers to be called a "video game journalist" and grimaces when he doesn't get to be "Player 1." If you want to share feedback or talk about games, reach out to @priyeakapj on Twitter.