YouTube Vanced will be shut down due to a legal threat from Google

YouTube Vanced developers announced that the app will be shut down soon after a legal threat from Google. The download links on the website will be taken down in the coming days.

Used by thousands of people, YouTube Vanced offers the opportunity to download videos and watch YouTube videos without ads. Vanced, which also contains some features that YouTube does not offer to Android users, is known as the most popular third-party YouTube app.

Currently installed versions will work just fine, until they become outdated in 2 years or so.

— Vanced Official (@YTVanced) March 13, 2022

While the app will continue to work for anyone currently installed on Android, “until they become outdated in 2 years or so”. Vanced owners say they had to stop the project for “legal reasons”.

Google sent the Vanced owners a cease and desist letter recently, which has forced the developers to stop distributing and developing the app. “We were asked to remove all references to ‘YouTube’, change the logo, and remove all links related to YouTube products,” says an admin from the Vanced team in a Discord message to The Verge.