I built Skip-O-Matic, a tiny Chrome/Brave/Edge extension that automatically skips YouTube ads without any user interaction.
Motivation: I listen to a lot of YouTube content (podcasts, music, talks) while driving, and reaching for the phone to skip ads felt unsafe. Full ad blockers like uBlock are great but overkill for many, and YouTube Premium is paid. This is a lightweight, targeted alternative.
How it works:
• Uses MutationObserver to watch the YouTube player DOM.
• When a “Skip Ad” button appears → clicks it instantly.
• For unskippable ads → detects ad playback and sets video speed to 16x (effectively skipping while keeping audio muted-ish).
• Bonus: Tracks skipped ad count in a simple popup.
Key points:
• 100% local – no network requests, no tracking, no data collection.
• Privacy-first, open-source (MIT), ~3 files, super lightweight.
• No Chrome Web Store yet (hobby project), manual load unpacked install.
It’s early (just pushed it live), so feedback very welcome – especially on edge cases, Manifest V3 compatibility, or better speed-handling ideas. If YouTube changes their DOM again, I’ll try to keep it updated.
gwthm•17h ago
I built Skip-O-Matic, a tiny Chrome/Brave/Edge extension that automatically skips YouTube ads without any user interaction. Motivation: I listen to a lot of YouTube content (podcasts, music, talks) while driving, and reaching for the phone to skip ads felt unsafe. Full ad blockers like uBlock are great but overkill for many, and YouTube Premium is paid. This is a lightweight, targeted alternative.
How it works: • Uses MutationObserver to watch the YouTube player DOM. • When a “Skip Ad” button appears → clicks it instantly. • For unskippable ads → detects ad playback and sets video speed to 16x (effectively skipping while keeping audio muted-ish). • Bonus: Tracks skipped ad count in a simple popup. Key points: • 100% local – no network requests, no tracking, no data collection. • Privacy-first, open-source (MIT), ~3 files, super lightweight. • No Chrome Web Store yet (hobby project), manual load unpacked install.
Install (~1 min): 1. Download ZIP from the repo 2. Unzip 3. chrome://extensions → Developer Mode → Load unpacked → select folder Code + full README: https://github.com/gowthamtadala/YouTube-skip-o-matic
It’s early (just pushed it live), so feedback very welcome – especially on edge cases, Manifest V3 compatibility, or better speed-handling ideas. If YouTube changes their DOM again, I’ll try to keep it updated.
Thanks for checking it out!