YouTube tests hiding the comments section by default on Android

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The comments section under YouTube videos is a treasure trove if you’re curious about other people’s opinions about the contents of any video. Apart from being the source of a buttload of memes and other entertaining snarky remarks, YouTube comments can also help you improve your learning curve. The other face of this coin, however, is the hate and bullying we see in the comments section. Whether you like to see the glass half empty or half full, it’s good to see that the YouTube app on Android is getting a more streamlined comments section.

Traditionally, when you scroll down in the player window, you see comments below the “Up next” section. But now, YouTube seems to be testing with a different layout for comments. Below the recommended videos, there’s now prompt which brings you to the set of buttons above the suggested videos when you tap on it. Between the Dislike and the Share button, we now see a new button for Comments and pressing it opens up the comments section in an overflow window.

Dragging down on this section refreshes the comments instead of closing it. There’s a separate button to close the window and it is easily accessible with the thumb.

Meanwhile, to make space for the Comments section, YouTube has had to hide the “Save to watch later” button, which is now accessible when you tap on the downward arrow meant to reveal the video’s description.

YouTube’s motive behind making this subtle change is not clear but this is clearly meant to improve the user experience. It might be related to the bubble-shaped filters that YouTube has been testing to refine its suggestions within the Android app, but we’re not sure. We’ll take some time to learn whether this is merely a design-related change or intended to refine how we interact with comments and update this article accordingly.

I’m seeing this change in India with not many reports from other parts of the world about the new feature. So, I presume this is a phased switch and probably made on the server side. If you see the feature in other regions, we’ll be obliged to update this article.