Tech giant Google has shut down third-party YouTube app ‘YouTube Vanced‘ for legal reasons.
The app developers received a cease and desist letter from Google, which forced them to stop developing the app and shut down the project completely.
According to a report by The Verge, Vanced owners were told by Google to “remove all references to YouTube, change the logo, and remove all links related to YouTube products.” The developers posted an official announcement on Twitter, stating that the development of the app will be discontinued, and they will take down all download links.
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.
To add to that, Vanced will likely continue to work if you already have it installed. For everyone asking why, it was due to legal reasons out of our control.
Vanced message via Discord
By 5:30 am PST, the Vanced team finally removed download links for the third-party app. They later posted a tweet for ‘alternatives’ to YouTube Vanced, and a link to the official YouTube Premium service.
YouTube Vanced is a popular third-party YouTube app on Android that was first developed in 2017. The app allows users to use YouTube without ads, and without needing a YouTube premium subscription. The app also offered features that were not available in the original YouTube app, such as the inclusion of the dislike counter, after YouTube disabled the feature in 2021.
