Apple MacBook Pro Touch Bar lets you skip YouTube ads

The MacBook Pro has fans and haters, but this feature is sure to bring both sides together: It can be used to skip non-skippable YouTube ads.

A post about this neat touch bar workaround is gaining traction . User “BiggerBadgers” uploaded a video on Wednesday showing how the MacBook Pro touch bar can be used to skip ahead to the end of a YouTube ad that is otherwise non-skippable.

The touch bar trick only works on the Safari web browser and, as points out, with the App Controls touch bar settings. This can be set within the “Keyboard” tab in System Preferences.

When a user comes across a non-skippable YouTube ad, they can simply drag the bar on timeline that appears on the touch bar towards the right and jump to the end of the advertisement. 

For the particularly impatient content consumer, this trick also works for YouTube’s TrueView video ads which are skippable after 5 seconds. A user can skip ahead and immediately click on the “Skip Ad” prompt that appears on the video.

Users should not scrub to the very end of the timeline for the video ad as it seems to result in the video becoming stuck in a never-ending buffering loop. 

Mashable has tested out the touch bar trick on each type of advertisement and found that the skipping feature worked on both.

It’s unclear whether Apple or YouTube is aware of the workaround. However, while it is getting considerable attention now, this is not the first time it’s been noticed. This particular touch bar trick appears to go back to November 2016, when it was also shared on Reddit.

If you find yourself bombarded by YouTube ads and don’t mind using Safari, this trick might be the answer to your video viewing problems.