Streaming Enhanced skips ads on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and co
Most online streaming services started to offer plans with ads recently. These plans are separate on Neflix, Disney+ and many other services. Amazon will soon start to display ads for all Prime Video customers, unless they pay an extra $2.99 per month to avoid them.
Conventional content blockers may not work to avoid these ads, especially if they display in the middle of a video.
Streaming Enhanced
Streaming Enhanced is a browser extension for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and all major browsers with the exception of Safari, that promises to skip ads on popular streaming platforms automatically.
The extension supports the services Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Hotstar and Chrunchyroll at the time of writing. It shares common functionality across all supported services and offers specific features for some of the services.
Ad-skipping is the most prominent feature of Streaming Enhanced, but it is far from the only one. As far as shared features go, it may also skip intros, recaps and watch credits, add playback speed controls, improve subtitle styling and show TMDB (The Movie Database) ratings.
The site-specific features add more functionality. Netflix viewers get an automatic profile picker, which picks the last used profile automatically, and no inactivity warnings (are you still watching).
On Amazon Prime Video, ads for Prime Video productions are also skipped. The extension blocks paid content furthermore and removes the blur when hovering over videos.
On Crunchyroll finally, it adds filters to the release calendar.
The GitHub project website offers information on how the skipping works: "The script, "skipper.js", is injected into all urls containing "amazon.*/*/video" or "netflix.com" or "disneyplus.com" or "hotstar.com"."
Streaming Enhanced needs to be installed in a web browser. It supports most desktop web browsers. The situation is different on Android and iOS. The extension works on Android, but only when you access Prime Video or Disney+ in desktop mode. Since most major browsers do not support extensions on Android, it is necessary to use a browser that does. The developer suggests Kiwi Browser.
Mozilla did unlock full extension support for Firefox for Android recently, but Streaming Enhanced is not available at this point. Developers need to set up their extensions to work for Firefox for Android specifically to be included.
Most features of the extension can be toggled in the preferences for services individually. You can, for example, disable the TMDB integration or allow credits to play. Everything is controlled with buttons in the extension preferences.
Preferences may be saved and restored at any time. There is also a handy statistics menu that highlights how much time you have saved while using the extension; this is similarly to the stats that Brave Browser displays by default on the New Tab Page.
The extension works automatically when it is installed. It worked as expected during tests.
Closing Words
Streaming Enhanced is an open source extension. You can donate to the project to support it. While you may not be able to use it on TV or devices that the supported browsers are not available for, it helps users who view the streams primarily using browsers.
Now You: do you use browser extensions to enhance your experience on streaming sites?
Hey I am the developer of this addon. Thanks for mentioning why I did not release my addon for android. I did not know that it was possible since december. Now I did it thanks to your article.
Clearly, Amazon should be investigated by the EU.
I rather just pirate it. Much easier.
Everything VioletMoon said. Additionally, it just doesn’t seem to work. At all. I only have Amazon Prime, so perhaps it works on those other services, but I have been watching various FreeVee shows all morning, and while I can’t say no ads have been blocked (impossible to prove a negative) I can say that ads for other Prime Video shows are NOT blocked, and some 3rd party ads (FanDuel, some Naan bread product, and some cat food product) have all slipped through. On the other hand, there don’t seem to be any ill effects. Subtitles are still screwed up to a fare-thee-well and the last minute of shows gets cut off, but that happens whenever Prime injects an ad at the beginning. I have seen no recaps, so maybe that works, or maybe the shows I have been watching don’t have recaps. I do not have Skip Credits turned on, so I doubt that the extension is causing the truncation of the episodes. So, all in all, not worth installing in my opinion, and I haven’t even mentioned the absurd list of permissions I had to agree to before it would even install. Gonna uninstall it AND go back to using the Prime App, because at least that works with subtitles. Frankly I am seriously considering hiring a lawyer, since the totally useless subtitles in the browser are a big violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Amazon could clean up its act and just doesn’t. It’s that sort of “who cares about the hearing impaired?” attitude that the ADA was enacted to fix.
No, we watch TV on a TV.
“Streaming Enhanced needs to be installed in a web browser.”
Won’t work then for Amazon Prime if the viewer prefers subtitles. Subtitles on Prime are so out-of-sync that it’s impossible to watch a foreign show/movie with English subtitles. I prefer subtitles even for spoken English. The only remedy I found to solve the subtitle sync issue is to use the Prime Amazon app which means the extension would be useless.
The extension blocks the ad, but plays blank frames that can be darkened? May as well watch the ad. Twittle thumbs; chant; breathe; hit a few acupressure points; get up and walk about; open and close the door for fresh air; pet the dog; freshen the make-up; kiss the cat, quick text, etc.
this was just an epilepsy option, the ads are blocked normally.
Streaming Enhanced github link?
https://github.com/Dreamlinerm/Netflix-Prime-Auto-Skip
With all the income Jeff Bezos derives from Amazon you’d think Prime could do without bombarding users with ‘effing ads into the bargain.
I notice now that Amazon has upped the postal charges for locations other than the one where the user resides. I live in the Netherlands and the postal charge at Amazon.nl is €2,99 if the value of the order is less than €20 and free if it’s above that figure. But I often used to buy stuff from Amazon.de (Germany) where the same goods are often 20 to 25% cheaper and where postage used to be €2,84 regardless of the order value, but that’s now been increased to €6,99 which is ripoff. So now the price of goods on the Dutch site have been increased substantially, but in such a way that it’s no longer cost-effective ordering them from the German site instead.
As for the Prime service Bezos can stick that where the Sun don’t shine as far as I’m concerned.
Nice.
Can they make it work on a Firestick?
All streaming services collect data on what you stream, even those that do not require a sign in.
If your paying for streaming services there should be no advertisements.
If you dont care about ads then just get one of the free ones that have advertisements as a supplement to the data they collect.
There are lots of streaming services that are free with minimal advertisements.
“All streaming services collect data on what you stream….”
In the news today….
“Study: Spotify app shares most data with third parties”
https://advanced-television.com/2024/01/04/study-spotify-app-shares-most-data-with-third-parties/