Those annoying little banners that pop over YouTube video content when you're watching on a desktop browser will soon be going away for good.

YouTube calls them overlay ads, and they're the only ad type on the platform that obscures part of the video while you're watching.

They're limited to the desktop app and web browsers at the moment, but they're easily the most irksome of the bunch, so they're unlikely to be missed.

YouTube confirmed its decision to scrap the format in a YouTube Help Forum post, stating that overlay ads are a legacy format and disruptive for viewers.

Beginning on April 6 2023, overlay ads will no longer appear on the site, and will be removed as a monetization option in YouTube Studio.

But what about creators? Is this change going to affect their revenue? YouTube doesn't seem to think so, simply stating that "these ads only appeared on desktop, and we expect to see limited impact for most creators as engagement shifts to other ad formats."

It makes sense to us, the majority of YouTube views come from mobile platforms, where the ad format is not used. Plus, desktop users are more likely to have ad-blocking measures installed, so we'd imagine the impact will be minimal.

So, while we welcome this change, we'll be interested to see what Google does to replace these advertisements, if anything.

The platform has become quite ad-heavy in recent years, both in terms of unskippable ads, and in-video sponsorship integrations. If you're sick of the relentless advertising, you might want to consider a YouTube Premium subscription.

Not only does it remove YouTube's advertising but creators actually get paid more for Premium views, so it works to the benefit of everyone. Premium also allows you to download content to watch offline, like on a flight for example, and listen to YouTube content with your screen locked on mobile.