Recently, the internet was worried that YouTube was phasing out the skip button on ads. It turns out that's not really true.
In a statement to The Verge, YouTube confirmed that the option to skip some ads isn't going away, but is rather getting a visual overhaul. According to a YouTube spokesperson, the site is trying to clean up the way ads look, and part of that is by changing the skip button into a progress bar on the bottom of the video. This will apparently be the case for both desktop and mobile users.
YouTube needed to address this in a statement because various places such as Reddit and AndroidPolice noticed that the skip button wasn't appearing on desktop or mobile. On desktop, things got particularly interesting, as it appeared that the YouTube video player was drawing a black rectangle over the skip button, almost as if to discourage people from using it. However, according to YouTube, that's not what's happening.
As always, you can avoid this entirely by paying for YouTube Premium. Such is life.
