YouTube first spoke about pause ads last year when it started trialing them in select regions. At the time, the company said that when you pause a video, it will shrink, and an ad will appear next to it.
“In Q1, we saw strong traction from the introduction of a pause ads pilot on connected TVs, a new non-interruptive ad format that appears when users pause their organic content,” Schindler noted. He went on to share that YouTube’s pause ads are “driving strong brand lift results” and “are commanding premium pricing from advertisers.”
Schindler didn’t share any timelines for when pause ads will start appearing on YouTube, but we know they’ll first roll out on smart TVs. The nature of these ads, including their duration, skippability, and more is still unclear. We also don’t know if Google plans to introduce these ads on YouTube’s mobile apps.
Is it even possible anymore [on mobile]?
E: mobile centric YouTube user.
uBlock Origin on Firefox certainly works. There was a short period of about 5 days (a couple of months ago) where they were blocking playback with uBlock enabled, but it didn't last long.
Oh true, I forget I am on mobile usually for YouTube.
On Android the same combo of Firefox / uBlock works quite well, but of course the experience isn't quite the same as it is in the app.