Google's YouTube App For Apple Headsets Doesn't Seem To Be Serving Ads

I encountered a pop-up ad from an Android app during my four days last year with the Galaxy XR headset from Samsung. It was a jarring experience to install a free Android app and then see the ad-pane flip up over the window I wanted to interact with using my eyes.

With yesterday’s addition of an official YouTube app from Google, people are discovering exactly what the capabilities are inside the app. You can pinch and drag, for example, while immersed in a 360-degree video to change around what you’re centered on. In addition, nobody has reported seeing an ad in the app yet.

Some have theorized (myself included) that the arrival of the app is part of the deal to power Apple services with Google’s Gemini AI. I’ve reached out to YouTube to ask if there’s an agreement to keep ads out of YouTube for now, or if they are still to come.

On the subreddit for Vision Pro, multiple posters tell one another to shush their theorizing lest they jinx the good vibes produced by a completely ad-free experience in VR.

I’ll update this post if I hear back from Google.