# ReVanced

43 Hacker News commenters recommended ReVanced and 10 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend ReVanced as a patched YouTube app for Android that removes ads, hides Shorts and adds SponsorBlock. Critics note it breaks after YouTube updates and needs repatching.

## Why people recommend it

- Hides or disables Shorts (7 comments): "Being able to remove Shorts from the app and to revert Alphabet's many incoherent design decisions makes the whole thing usable." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46190941)) "Luckily I use uBlock Origin and ReVanced, and I blocked all Shorts from even appearing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48552045)) "I personally solved this by using revanced and disabling shorts completely." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47021877))
- Removes YouTube ads (6 comments): "I use Ublock origin or revanced to remove the ads too because there's way too many now." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46518177)) "which gives you youtube without any ads and a lot of other customizations" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46841009)) "I've not seen an ad from Youtube for probably 10+ years on my devices" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49190611))
- Better experience than official app (4 comments): "it allows me to hide shorts. A 'pirated' version of the app offers a much better experience than even the paid option of it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47019945)) "Couldn't imagine using YouTube on my phone without it, it's night and day difference" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47771197)) "Revanced is the best UX for Android, can remove a lot of things as well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46052466))
- Built-in SponsorBlock support (2 comments): "Revanced Youtube's app support sponsorblock as well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46516780)) "it integrates Sponsorblock into the app" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49195903))

## What people warn about

- Breaks after YouTube updates (3 comments): "you gotta repatch every 4~6 months, its always breaking due to yt changes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49860922)) "updates stopped and my older revanced stopped working correctly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49859467)) "they were always getting broken by youtube" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46052802))
- Developer drama and legal risk (2 comments): "Revanced has some issues with developer drama where the lead banned other devs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49862670)) "revanced is legally dicey" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47020520))
- Hard to install or build (2 comments): "the weird revanced route worked for me exactly once out of the several attempts on two phones" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47023204)) "spending endless hours trying to build an working apk" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47025709))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [PipePipe](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pipepipe.md): 37 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "ReVanced", https://hackerapproved.com/p/revanced/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).