The experience of watching YouTube videos is somehow getting worse and worse, and if you’re watching them on your smart TV, prepare yourself for a bunch of unskippable 30-second ads before your video has even started. As if that wasn’t bad enough, YouTube may also start showing you ads when you pause a video. Luckily, there are two ways around this: you can pay for YouTube Premium (nope), or find a better alternative to the YouTube app.

SmartTubeNext lets you block ads on YouTube on Android TV devices. It supports TVs with Chromecast built-in, Amazon's Fire TV streaming sticks, Xiaomi's Mi Box streaming device, Nvidia Shield, and many other Android TV streaming boxes. As long as you have a supported device, you can follow the instructions on SmartTubeNext's GitHub page to install it.

You only need to install it once manually. After you install the app, it can update itself. SmartTubeNext blocks all ads on YouTube and even has the SponsorBlock extension built-in, which means you can also skip ad reads and other sponsored segments in videos from your favorite YouTube creators.

You can also use picture-in-picture mode for free with SmartTubeNext. This is great for those who like to watch YouTube videos while streaming a live sports match from another app, for example. The app also supports casting and voice search, and you should check out its GitHub page for instructions on how to set these up for your device.