Get rid of YouTube unskippable ADS with simple JavaScript

If you want to know how this method works keep reading. If you only came for the code, scroll down to the end of page.

Ads on YouTube

If you are watching YouTube, chances are that you came across ads where you have to wait 5 seconds for the 'Skip Ad' button to be enabled, end then click it to watch the video. And then same process happens with another video, or in the middle of the video, and it is troublesome.

Ads are just a <video> tag, and there is a fun little thing about it that we are going to "exploit" today.

HTMLMediaElement

Video is just another HTMLMediaElement that we can work with using JavaScript. If you want to learn more about available methods and properties click here to read about it on MDN

The HTMLMediaElement interface adds to HTMLElement the properties and methods needed to support basic media-related capabilities that are common to audio and video.

We can manipulate video element by using available properties, but we are only interested in 2 of them :
HTMLMediaElement.currentTime
HTMLMediaElement.duration

We will set currentTime of the AD to the duration of that same AD. This will make video player go to the end of the AD, and 'Skip Ad' button will appear.

Then we will use JavaScript to automatically click the button and therefore skip the ad.

Code

const stopYoutubeAd = () => {
  const ad = document.querySelector('.ad-showing');

  if (ad) {
    const video = document.querySelector('video');

    if (video) {
      video.currentTime = video.duration;

      setTimeout(() => {
        const skipButtons = document.querySelectorAll(".ytp-ad-skip-button");

        for (const skipButton of skipButtons) {
          skipButton.click();
        }
      }, 10)
    }
  }

  const overlayAds = document.querySelectorAll(".ytp-ad-overlay-slot");

  for (const overlayAd of overlayAds) {
    overlayAd.style.visibility = "hidden";
  }
}

setInterval(() => {
  stopYoutubeAd()
}, 200)

This will make our code run every 200 miliseconds, so that even if ad is in the middle of the video, it will still work correctly. If anything is unclear in this code, read the comments I wrote.

Conclusion

You can run this code directly in the console, or you can create a browser extension that works in background, click here to read more about making one. Either way, it is pretty easy and simple to understand, yet really powerful and handy.