Thank you for choosing SkipAd — the 100% free way to enjoy YouTube videos without interruptions. No premium subscriptions, no shady browser plugins, just an excellent viewing experience from the very first click.
Below is a summary of the major features shipping in the current release, walking you through everything it offers so you can get the most out of SkipAd right away.
5 Minutes to read
Version 2026.0.2
SkipAd embeds an excellent video player to block all ads on YouTube videos instantly for a better viewing experience. No more pre-roll, mid-roll, or overlay ads. The application provides a 100% free alternative to YouTube Premium plans or browser plugins for watching YouTube videos undisturbed.
Ad-Free YouTube Playback
The core feature of SkipAd is the complete removal of advertisements from YouTube video playback. Videos are played through an embedded VideoJS player that uses a custom YouTube tech layer (youtube.js v3.1.8), effectively bypassing all pre-roll, mid-roll, and overlay ads delivered by YouTube.
The player replaces the native YouTube iframe controls with its own simplified control bar, providing a cleaner, more consistent viewing experience across browsers and devices.
Video Selection
Users can load any YouTube video in several ways:
- Paste or type a URL
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A dedicated input field accepts full YouTube URLs (e.g.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=xxxx), short URLs (https://youtu.be/xxxx), embed URLs, or plain 11-character video IDs. - Clipboard paste button
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A one-click paste button reads the clipboard and populates the input field automatically. Falls back to manual paste when the Clipboard API is unavailable.
- Server playlists
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Pre-curated video lists can be imported from the server via a dropdown selector, making it easy to discover new content.
- Playlist replay
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Any previously watched video can be replayed directly from the personal playlist.
VideoJS Player
The embedded player is based on VideoJS 8 with a fluid, responsive layout that adapts to any screen size. Key player capabilities include:
- Playback rate control
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Configurable playback speeds allow viewers to watch at their preferred pace.
- Skip buttons
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Forward and backward skip buttons provide quick navigation within a video.
- Hotkeys
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Keyboard shortcuts for common player actions.
- Aspect ratio panel
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A control panel for adjusting the video aspect ratio.
- Zoom
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A zoom control plugin for closer inspection of video content.
- Custom theming
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The player ships with multiple VideoJS themes (Fantasy, Forest, Sea, Uno).
- Persist settings
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Player settings such as volume are persisted across sessions.
- Auto-scroll
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When a video starts playing, the page automatically scrolls to bring the player into view.
Personal Playlist
SkipAd automatically builds a personal playlist based on the videos a user watches. The playlist is persisted in the browser’s localStorage and supports a rich set of management features.
Display Modes
The playlist can be viewed in two modes, switchable via a toggle:
- Cards
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A visual card layout displaying thumbnails, titles, authors, ratings, and action buttons in a grid arrangement.
- List
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A compact row-based layout with the same information in a more condensed format.
Sorting
The playlist supports sorting by multiple criteria. Sort options that have no meaningful data across all entries are automatically hidden:
| Criterion | Description |
|---|---|
Date (newest) | Most recently watched first (default) |
Date (oldest) | Earliest watched first |
Issue Date | Newest or oldest publication date |
Duration | Longest or shortest video first |
Title | Alphabetical by title |
Author | Alphabetical by author/channel name |
Category | Alphabetical by user-assigned category |
Type | Alphabetical by media type |
Episode | Ascending episode number (for series) |
The selected sort criterion is persisted across page reloads.
Full-Text Search
A search bar powered by lunr.js enables full-text search across playlist entries. The search index covers the fields title, author, category, tags, and type with weighted relevance scoring (title is boosted highest). The index is built on demand and cached in localStorage for fast subsequent queries.
Search results are displayed inline within the playlist, and a result count badge shows the number of matches. Clearing the search restores the full playlist view.
Video Rating
Each video can be rated on a 1-5 star scale through a dedicated rating modal. Ratings are displayed as star overlays on playlist thumbnails and can be used as a sort criterion.
Metadata Editing
An edit modal allows users to enrich or correct the metadata of any playlist entry. Editable fields include:
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Category - free-text categorization (e.g. Music, Education, Sports)
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Description - short description text
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Episode - episode number for series content
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Info Link - an external URL for additional information (with a live open-in-new-window button)
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Video Link - the full YouTube video URL
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Issue Date - original publication date
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Series - flag indicating the video belongs to a series
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Tags - comma-separated tags for search and filtering
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Type - media type (e.g. audio, video, short, livestream)
Playback Position Resume
SkipAd saves the last playback position for every watched video. When a video is replayed from the playlist, playback can resume from the point where the user previously stopped.
Watch Date Tracking
Every playlist entry records when it was last watched and displays a human-readable time ago label (e.g. "3 hours ago", "2 weeks ago"). The watch date is refreshed on every playback start.
Playlist Import and Export
Export
The current playlist can be exported as a timestamped JSON file (skipAd-playlist_yyyy-mm-dd__hh-mm-ss.json) for backup or sharing purposes.
Import from File
Playlist JSON files (both the new meta_data + playlist format and legacy arrays) can be imported from the local filesystem. Imported entries are normalized to ensure all required fields are present.
Import from Server
A server-hosted playlist index (index.json) provides a list of hand-picked video collections. Users select a playlist from a dropdown and import it into their personal playlist with a single click.
Merge Mode
A Merge toggle controls the import behavior. When enabled, imported entries are merged with the existing playlist and duplicates (matching videoId) are skipped. When disabled, the import replaces the current playlist entirely.
Auto-Sort for Series
When an imported playlist contains series entries (entries with series > 0 or episode > 0), the sort criterion is automatically switched to Episode so that episodes appear in the correct viewing order.
Loop Mode
A Loop toggle enables automatic playlist advancement. When loop mode is active and a video ends, the player automatically loads and plays the next entry according to the current sort order. Loop mode is restricted to playlists where all entries are marked as series content, ensuring it is used for sequential viewing of related videos.
AI ChatBot support
For help and support, AI Chatbots are the new standard for answering customers' questions about how to use the product. No more anboying manual searches across a bunch of documents found by a classic full-text search. AI-based robots can search through documents much more efficiently and summarize what matters in seconds.
SkipAd uses Claude made by Anthropic. Anthropic is an AI security company based in San Francisco. The company was founded in 2021 by Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei, along with several former OpenAI employees. The company’s goal is to develop AI systems that are safe, useful, and understandable.
Technical Details
| Component | Details |
|---|---|
SkipAd Core |
|
Player Framework |
|
YouTube Tech |
|
Search Engine |
|
AI ChatBot Claude |
|
Author | Juergen Adams |
Storage | Browser |