As content creators, we can somewhat appreciate YouTube asking “are you still watching” every couple of hours, but when you just want some peaceful sounds, the halt in the content may be annoying. We’re sharing with you, how to disable “are you still watching” on YouTube and keep you listening to your favorite sounds for 8, 10, or 12 hours if you want. The YouTube video will just continue until you stop it.
We searched social media, and the YouTube app itself before realizing that, oh yeah, YouTube wants you to watch YouTube videos. They want to serve the ads to actual people, so they do not offer a feature to disable the question or any other way out of this.
Why is YouTube asking if you are still watching?
The platform is checking to see if they need to continue rolling out those annoying ads for you. Every time an ad is run, YouTube shells out cash. Why not just stop the bleeding by asking, “hey, you, are you still watching this? Because if you’re not, we need to plug this leak!”
If you don’t answer or are really not watching/listening, you will see a video pause on the screen. You can always head over when you notice and release the pausing mode by pushing play, or anything on the remote to let YouTube know that you are still watching.
How to Disable That Prompt From YouTube: “Are You Still Watching?”
The YouTube Premium Route
If you pay for the YouTube Premium option (about $12/month) then you have a one-way line to peaceville. You are able to get rid of the prompt, and you are able to disable all commercials. The monthly fee isn’t worth it to us now that we have an out.
Desktop- How to turn off YouTube, “Are you still watching?”
There is an easy way to stop YouTube from asking that annoying auto question. You can turn this off on your desktop computer by using a browser extension that is made just for disabling this type of thing. The extension is called YouTube NonStop. So, how do you implement this?
- Open Chrome Web Store from your desktop browser
- Search YouTube NonStop from the extension page.
- Click on the blue button- Add to Chrome.
- Select Add extension- from the pop-up window.
- Voila! You are all set! Enjoy the viewing/listening without the interrogation from YouTube.
Mobile- Solution for disabling the annoyance
Since the YouTube NonStop extension isn’t capable of working on cell phones via Google Chrome, you need to download a browser called “Kiwi Browser” which does allow extensions. You can find the Kiwi Brower in your app store. You will use Kiwi as your browser for YouTube after you complete the following instructions:
- Open the Kiwi browser from your mobile device.
- Tap on the three-dot menu button (top right) and select Extensions.
- Tap on + (from store) or directly open the Chrome Web Store.
- In the search box (top left of screen) search YouTube NonStop and add the extension to the browser- blue box- add to chrome.
- Voila! You are all set! Enjoy the viewing/listening without the interrogation from YouTube.
Remember, this will only work on your mobile device if you go to YouTube via the Kiwi browser, not Chrome.
We hope these helpful instructions help you get back to watching or listening to your favorite videos in the background of whatever else you are doing. If you’re like us, we use the “Kiwi Browser” option to listen to our sleep sounds at night. We sure don’t want to wake up to silence or read the display with that ever-so-annoying question. Right?!
Now that you know how to disable “Are you still watching?” on YouTube, share this with a friend. They will thank you!
We’re all about DIY tricks. Read on if you want to see more of our DIY projects around our tiny bungalow.
It immediately works, once you have installed the extension.
No. You can, but we don’t know much about the experience overall. We just save it on our phones and use it only for our YouTube needs.
We have not found a way to use the extension on the TV experience. You could cast your phone feed to the TV if you have that capability, and try it that way. Good luck!
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