Recommendations are everything on a video platform like YouTube, and users have a strong say in what they like or dislike. YouTube made this process a little complicated when it removed the dislike/thumbs-down count in 2021. Since then, we’ve also seen YouTube experiment with a hidden like counter, though the idea didn’t quite stick. That may be changing now.
According to multiple firsthand accounts from Redditors, likes have completely disappeared from YouTube videos. The scale of these issues, coupled with the number of impacted users chiming in the comments section, indicates this is widespread. It’s also hard to determine at this point whether this is an intentional change or just a bug, as PiunikaWeb points out.
For what it’s worth, I’m seeing the like counter in both the Android and iOS versions of YouTube, while it’s also visible on the web. If this is part of a limited test to gauge user sentiment, it’s safe to say that not many are happy.
Meanwhile, a user on X had a slightly different experience. Instead of the likes completely vanishing from a video, it appears to have moved between the channel name and the view counter. This suggests YouTube may be testing multiple versions of this particular design update that nobody asked for.
Not the first time this has happened
When YouTube experimented with removing the like counter in April 2022, some believed that likes may have moved to the Description section in videos. However, in its current form, like counts are already visible in the video description, so YouTube may be considering keeping the counter exclusively within this section, though it doesn’t quite make sense.
Social media app Instagram took the big step of hiding like counts in late 2019, citing mental health concerns. However, this approach was later amended to give users a choice about the visibility of likes. Given that likes on YouTube serve a fundamentally different purpose than on Instagram, we’d be surprised if YouTube took this approach. Ideally, likes should be more visible, since they help users gauge the content’s quality (in most cases).
YouTube hasn’t commented on these user reports so far, though we should eventually be able to figure out whether the like counter’s mysterious disappearance is deliberate or a temporary glitch. The fact that it’s not consistently hidden for everyone makes the situation a little harder to comprehend.
Are you seeing like counts on YouTube?
