Google has always positioned YouTube as a platform focused on creators and introduced many new features to improve its community. Recently, we saw the company add a real-time subscriber counter and support for automatic product detection in videos. Now, according to recent confirmation from YouTube, the company is testing a new feature that will hide users dislike count on videos to prevent trolls from using the dislike button as a weapon.
YouTube tests hide count of "dislikes" on videos
A move similar to YouTube's Instagram
YouTube announced the feature via an official tweet recently. In the tweet, he said that the currently experimental feature is the result of "Creator feedback on wellness and specific campaigns I don't like." You can see the tweet below.
👍👎 In response to creator feedback on wellness and specific dislike campaigns, we're testing some new layouts that don't show the public dislike count. If you're part of this little experiment, you might see one of these designs in the coming weeks (example below!).
– YouTube YouTube) March 30, 2021
https://twitter.com/YouTube/status/1376942486594150405?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
As you can see, YouTube says that it is working on “a few new designs” because of its user interface that does not show the count of dislikes on videos. The dislike button will still exist on the platform and will even be functional for viewers. However, they will not be able to see the count of dislikes on the videos. The creators, on the other hand, will be able to see the count of dislikes on your videos only in the YouTube Studio app.
Now, if you haven't already noticed, this feature is similar to Instagram's recent trial of hiding the number of likes on posts to help out their community. Although the head of Instagram has already admitted that he is a "Changing Idea" for many, the Facebook-owned company still aims to roll out the feature to global users at some point in the not too distant future.
Similarly, such a feature for YouTube is also in its experimental phase. The company is rolling it out to just a handful of creators for now. There is currently no information on when the feature will be implemented. I do not like worldwide.
How about having a dislike button on YouTube videos? Leave a comment with your opinion.