DuckDuckGo just added a feature YouTube haters will love: built-in ad blocking for the platform.
The browser now blocks most video ads on YouTube — both the ones that play before a video and the ones that pop up mid-roll. It’s enabled by default on iOS, Mac, and Windows. Android users can flip it on in Settings > Ad Blocking.
This isn’t the same as Duck Player, DuckDuckGo’s embedded YouTube viewer that uses YouTube’s strictest privacy settings. The new system relies on community-maintained filter lists from uBlock Origin, plus DuckDuckGo’s own compatibility rules. Users can run both at once — Duck Player for privacy, and the new ad blocking on the standard YouTube site.
“It’s the regular YouTube experience, just without ads,” the company said. You keep features like viewing history and playlist progress.
One catch: buffering might take slightly longer. And since YouTube changes how it serves ads frequently, the blocker may occasionally stop working until filter rules update.
DuckDuckGo joins Brave and Opera, both of which already block YouTube ads out of the box. For everyone else, it means one less reason to install a third-party extension.
