The YouTube comment section is a wild mishmash, to say the least. Apart from being a source of snarky comments and memes, it can also get especially dark.
Earlier this year, the platform disabled comments on videos of children after discovering a disturbing amount of pedophilic comments and hate speech. Now, YouTube is testing a change that could relocate comments on its mobile app.
New Location
Traditionally, the comment section is located below the “up next” section. But now, YouTube seems to be testing a different layout for comments.
Below the recommended videos, there’s a new prompt that brings you to the set of buttons above suggested videos.
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.
YouTube’s Intentions
It’s unclear if YouTube’s motive is to hide the comments. One on hand, they might be placing them on another page to get people to see comments directly. On the other hand, they might be doing this to make them easier to access since users have to scroll quite a bit to reach them.
It might even 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.
In a statement provided by a spokesperson, YouTube says:
We’re always experimenting with ways to help people more easily find, watch, share and interact with the videos that matter most to them. We are testing a few different options on how to display comments on the watch page. This is one of many small experiments we run all the time on YouTube, and we’ll consider rolling features out more broadly based on feedback on these experiments.
