Ad blocking in Spotify (Podcasts) doesn't work

[erawhctim]

Info:

• Pixel 6
• Android 12 (Build #SD1A.210817.027, if that matters)
• Spotify v8.6.82.1113

Tried playing a podcast on Spotify, waiting for Ads, and nothing happened. The ads play, I see "Advertisement" in the notification title, and I see the Ad Silence persistent notification (so the app was running). I had granted permission before running Spotify, and seemed to complete all the steps required to configure Ad Silence 🤔

I can try and debug locally to get some more info in logcat - are there specific log tags/messages I can search for or filter on?

[aghontpi]

I haven't tested podcasts in spotify, I'll check them out.

you can check the line below in logs https://github.com/aghontpi/ad-silence/blob/ec5df7e6960a5f62b7088f36687b713a861d9cca/app/src/main/java/bluepie/ad_silence/NotificationParser.kt#L91-L96

[aghontpi]

okey, so I tried running podcasts on a account with no subscription, I did not get ads in them to test. (not including the ads baked into the episode itself by the creator)

can you link the podcasts?, if you dont want to share it publicly, send it to me directly.

[erawhctim]

@aghontpi I just pulled up the latest episode of Joe Rogan's podcast to test. Ads appear after a little while, though (not immediate), and the exact point in time where they trigger the ad(s) seems to vary slightly between episodes.

The ad appears as a different "track" and has its own standalone notification (which seems to be what your app needs to detect with). I can try running locally and searching in the logs; I'll see if I can copy them and post here.

[aghontpi]

Thanks!, I found it on his pod cast.

this is a great find!! thanks to you.

[aghontpi]

the build below should cover the same.

(rename .zip to .apk, limitations in github comments) app-release.zip

testing for a day before closing this.

update: tested, closing..

[ouzowtf]

Just installed version 0.9.1 to test this with Spotify and I got ads playing while playing an auto-generated playlist ("Your mixtape")

(Pixel 4a 5G on Android 12)

[aghontpi]

yea 0.2.1. @ouzowtf I tried mixtape, the ad shows up but the app detects and silences it. I'll keep on testing it in the upcoming days.., meanwhile I'm keeping this issue closed (since this is related to podcasts), you can open a new issue.

[citizenserious]

I use Spotify premium, but I still have advertisement while listening to podcasts. Unfortunately ad silencing doesn't work. Maybe it is not working because the ads are labeled as "Spotify" instead as advertisement?

[aghontpi]

@citizenserious maybe the ads are baked in the original podcast file/audio by the creator.

[citizenserious]

@aghontpi, thats not the case, it is advertisment for other podcasts The screenshot that I shared shows the advertised podcast, not the one that I listen to. In the first picture you can see that it is labeled as "ADVERTISEMENT FROM Spotify"

[aghontpi]

@citizenserious there is no mention of "ad" in the song title or notification. how do we block this..

The artist name is Spotify maybe that can be used 🤔

[citizenserious]

@aghontpi Exactly, I think that is the problem here. We could try to add Spotify but I do not know if there are any side affects like false blocking or worse. I would test it for a while if you like to provide a test version. (:

[aghontpi]

@citizenserious, yea true.

I'll refactor/ do the changes and tag you in #63 with the build

[citizenserious]

@aghontpi you are the best! Thank you very much for your work.

[citizenserious]

@aghontpi

I found several Sponsors which are not silenced yet:

If you could show me how you added it last time I am willing to try it myself, but consider, that I never partisipaded at a project on github or any comparable platform. Maybe I could start with that, trying to participate at this awesome project (: