YouTube is once again experimenting with the placement and visibility of one of its most scrutinized platform features: the dislike button. According to recent reports and user sightings across social media platforms, the video-sharing giant appears to be testing a new interface design that either tucks the dislike button away into a secondary menu or removes it from its familiar position entirely.
The latest development was initially highlighted by 9to5Google, which pointed to observations shared by multiple eagle-eyed users online. At least two different users on the social media platform X recently published screenshots showing that the traditional dislike button has been relocated from its usual home directly beneath the video player and placed instead inside the three-dots overflow submenu. Meanwhile, another user on Reddit shared a similar visual observation, reporting that the dislike button was completely absent from its standard location altogether.
Under the current standard layout experienced by the vast majority of YouTube viewers, the dislike button sits prominently right next to the like button beneath any given video. While the public numeric count of dislikes has been hidden from viewers for several years, the interactive button itself has remained a primary fixture of the engagement toolbar, allowing users to register their negative feedback privately. Relocating this function to a drop-down or submenu would fundamentally alter how users interact with content, creating an additional layer of friction. Moving the button away from the main viewing interface would mean that considerably more effort is required to access it, which would likely lead to a substantial drop in the overall usage of the feature as casual viewers opt to bypass the extra click.
As of right now, the exact scope of this apparent test remains unclear. It is difficult to determine how widely this user interface experiment is being rolled out across YouTube’s massive global user base, as platform operators frequently run limited A/B tests on small percentages of accounts to gauge user reaction and interface efficiency before deciding whether to implement broader changes. When approached for comment regarding the ongoing reports and the ultimate goals of the test, Google did not immediately respond to requests for clarification.
This potential interface tweak is just the latest chapter in YouTube’s long-running and evolving relationship with the dislike button, a feature that has undergone significant policy and design overhauls over the years. The platform has repeatedly demonstrated a distinct willingness to alter how dislikes function in the name of creator wellbeing and platform harmony.
Most notably, back in November 2021, YouTube made the sweeping and controversial decision to hide public dislike counts on all videos across the entire platform. At the time, company leadership explained that the primary motivation behind the change was to protect creators—particularly smaller and independent channels—from coordinated dislike campaigns, harassment, and targeted psychological pressure, while still allowing the underlying metric to be tracked by creators themselves in their analytics dashboards to gauge audience reception.
More recently, YouTube has continued to experiment with streamlining interfaces on specific content formats. Earlier this year, the platform quietly removed the dislike button entirely from YouTube Shorts, its dedicated vertical video feed designed to rival TikTok and Instagram Reels. In that instance, YouTube redirected users toward alternative options housed within the three-dots menu if they wished to manage their engagement preferences, a design choice that closely mirrors the current desktop and mobile web tests being reported by users.
As YouTube evaluates user feedback and gathers data from these latest experiments, the ultimate fate of the dislike button across standard long-form videos remains to be seen. Whether the current test represents a permanent shift in platform design or merely a temporary UI trial will depend heavily on the metrics and user responses collected during the rollout.
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