What you need to know
- Users report a YouTube glitch where full-screen ads won’t disappear even after tapping the dismiss button.
- The issue affects the mobile YouTube app on Android and iOS, with ads appearing in the bottom-left corner.
- Ads can linger for about 30 seconds, and many users say exiting the video or restarting the app is the only reliable way to remove them.
If you’ve watched a YouTube video in full-screen mode on your phone recently, you might have run into a new glitch where ads won’t leave the screen, even after you tap to dismiss them.
Over the past few days, multiple users (1, 2, 3, 4) have started reporting a frustrating issue where YouTube ads appear during full-screen videos and won’t go away (via PiunikaWeb).
Normally, these small overlay banners can be dismissed with a tap. But in this case, the “Dismiss” button doesn’t remove the ad, leaving it parked in the corner of the screen while the video keeps playing.
For anyone watching on their phone, it’s a pretty distracting experience.
Android Central’s Take
What frustrates me most about this bug isn’t just the ad itself. It’s what it shows about how YouTube treats its free users. I understand that YouTube needs to make money, and ads are part of the deal. But when the experience is broken and the “Dismiss” button doesn’t actually work, it feels like more than just showing an ad. It feels like YouTube is breaking trust.
The problem appears to affect the mobile YouTube app on both Android and iOS. Users say the ad typically pops up in the bottom-left corner during full-screen playback, usually promoting third-party apps or websites.
In some cases, the ad eventually disappears on its own after about 30 seconds. But many viewers report that the only reliable way to clear it is to exit the video entirely or restart the app. Even then, the ad may return the next time a new video plays.
This is almost certainly a bug, not a feature
This has caused a lot of confusion online. Some users wonder if YouTube added a new ad format, while others think something just broke.
If this was done on purpose, it would be a big change. YouTube has tried different ad formats before, but ads that stay during full-screen videos would probably upset many viewers. That’s why most people think this is a bug, not a new feature.
How the ad works is another clue. The interface still shows a dismiss option, but it doesn’t work. This suggests the system is malfunctioning instead of introducing a new type of ad you can’t avoid.
So far, most reports come from people using the free version of YouTube. Premium subscribers, who pay to remove ads, don’t seem to have this problem.
Android Central’s Take
To me, this shows how tricky it is to balance ads with the viewing experience. Ads keep YouTube free, but when they get in the way of the content, it gets frustrating fast. For users, this situation is a reminder that reliability is just as important as ad policies, since even a small bug like this can make watching videos feel much less smooth.
If you run into this problem, there are a few temporary fixes. You can try watching the video in a mobile web browser instead of the app, exit and reopen the video, or update the YouTube app to the latest version.
None of these solutions is perfect, but they can help sidestep the stuck overlay until a proper fix arrives. At the moment, YouTube hasn’t publicly confirmed whether it’s aware of the bug or working on a fix.
If this really is a software glitch, which seems likely, it will probably be fixed in a future app update. Until then, some viewers might have to put up with an ad staying in the corner for about 30 seconds.
Android Central has reached out to Google for a statement and will update this article once the tech giant responds.
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