The name Vanced originates from the word advanced but with ad removed, in reference to the software's ad blocking features.[8]
On March 13, 2022, the developers of YouTube Vanced announced that the application would be shut down after they received a cease and desist letter from Google, which forced the developers to stop developing and distributing the app.[2][3][7][9][10][11] The app continued to function for remaining users until late April 2023, when the core playback feature of YouTube Vanced was rendered nonfunctional without any further updates.[12][13] After the discontinuation of YouTube Vanced, similar applications, such as ReVanced, emerged as replacements.[14]
In late March 2024, Vanced MicroG was also rendered nonfunctional to all ReVanced users who still used it, prompting users to use the latest version of the app.[15]
Features
YouTube features
YouTube Premium features
Vanced allowed access to multiple YouTube Premium features, such as the picture-in-picture mode, which allowed for videos to be watched in a floating window, ad block, which removed advertisements in the app, and background play, which allowed for videos to be played as audio in the background.[16][17]
Other features
Vanced granted access to many other features, such as SponsorBlock and its database, which skip sponsor segments within videos, an AMOLED black theme, forced HDR mode along with the VP9 codec, maximum resolution override, swipe control for brightness and volume, the enabling of pinch-to-zoom on all devices, the ability to automatically repeat videos after finishing, carrying over video quality and speed preferences from video to video, the re-enabling of the dislike counter on videos, and the ability to log in using a modified microG.[18][19]
YouTube Music features
YouTube Premium features
YouTube Music Vanced offered YouTube Premium-like features similar to those of YouTube Vanced, including ad block.[20]
Vanced Manager features
Installation
YouTube Vanced and other modded apps from the Vanced Team were downloaded and updated via the Vanced Manager using pre-built APK files.[18] For users of Vanced who had rooted their phone, the app could be installed and recognized as the phone's default YouTube app, rather than installing as a separate app.
History
In 2015, an xPosed module named "YouTube Background Playback" was developed by GitHub users pylerSM, esgie, and sigv.[21] In 2016, user th3an7 started maintaining the module, later becoming the most active maintainer.[22] On February 21, 2017, XDA Developers user Master_T injected the functions of the xPosed module into the YouTube APK file itself, releasing it as iYTBP (short for injected YouTube Background Playback).[23] It could be installed without Magisk by using an official "iYTBP Vanced Universal Installer".[24] The project name was changed from iYTBP to Vanced on March 4, 2018.[25]
On June 30, 2020, after 3 months of development, Vanced Manager was released to ease the installation of newer versions of Vanced, which came as an APKS (Split APK) file rather than an ordinary APK.[26]
On September 27, 2020, YouTube Music Vanced was released.[27]
An update in June 2021 brought a redesigned logo.[20]
On March 13, 2022, Google sent a cease-and-desist to Team Vanced, causing the project to be shut down.[3] At the time of shutdown, it was maintained by GitHub users bhatvikrant, milindgoel15, mlnrDev, Vendicated, and X1nto.[28]