Recently, YouTube started actively fighting ad blockers, requiring them to be disabled. This has caused a mixed reaction among users, with some calling for the abandonment of blockers or subscription to YouTube Premium to support content creators, while others oppose such coercion by the company.

The Ad Speedup extension, available in the Chrome Web Store and compatible with Edge, can solve this problem. It intelligently speeds up YouTube ads instead of blocking them. The extension automatically detects ads and plays them at 16 times the speed, reducing a 30-second video to a few seconds. In addition, Ad Speedup mutes ads by default and plans to include an automatic “Skip” button in a future version.

The extension works by manipulating YouTube’s playback speed controls. Although the YouTube player doesn’t allow you to speed up the playback of ads by default, Ad Speedup uses the capabilities of the browser’s video player to increase the playback speed when ads are detected. This simple but effective approach allows you to skip ads on the one hand, but on the other hand, content creators still have to earn some revenue from them. Although it’s worth noting that YouTube Premium is still the best way to support your favorite video creators.