Team Vanced also released 'YouTube Music Vanced,' which made similar changes to the YouTube Music app. In addition, Vanced re-enabled YouTube's removed 'Dislike' button and got rid of the YouTube Shorts UI. Vanced didn't just block ads, though it also added a bunch of community-requested features like a darker dark theme, SponsorBlock integration, and video quality preferences.

Along with the copyright infringement of redistributing Google's proprietary code and infringement of the YouTube trademark, you could consider Vanced a form of piracy since it was essentially a cracked version of the YouTube app that enabled most of the $12-per-month YouTube Premium features for free. The primary appeal of Vanced was the ad-blocking feature (the name is YouTube 'AdVanced,' but without the 'ad'-get it?) and background playback. The developers decompiled Google's official YouTube app, added additional features, and distributed the resulting code. YouTube Vanced, which was created in 2017, is a mod of Google's Android YouTube app.

The project leaders are being weirdly coy about why the app is shutting down, but The Verge confirmed that a cease-and-desist letter from Google is the reason. The project announced its discontinuation over the weekend. YouTube Vanced, a popular mod of the official YouTube Android app, is dead.

Vanced app reddit