Something to look forward to: The home of videos on the internet, YouTube, was spotted testing a new layout for its Android app where the user comments section is hidden by default. Considering that many users tend to keep away from the mixed bag of weird, funny, obnoxious and occasional insightful comments of the internet, hiding it behind a button could make for a more streamlined YouTube experience.
In what seems like another push to moderate its app content and experience, YouTube has been spotted experimenting with its app layout on Android. A new feature to hide the user comments section was recently spotted by an XDA member in India.
The YouTube comments section, which is full of user reactions, witty remarks, memes, and the utterly awful "Who's watching it in [insert year here]" comments, is an important feature of the app that also allows creators to directly converse with fans, add more information to a video or give verbal feedback where a simple like/dislike may not suffice.
With its new layout that the company has been testing on Android, the comments section that's traditionally displayed below the recommended or "Up next' section is now replaced by a "Looking for comments?" prompt with a user comment count. Tapping it takes the user to an updated set of buttons with comments now between the dislike and share button.
Pressing the new "Comments" button reveals the comments section in an overflow window that can be dragged down to refresh and scrolled up for more comments. There's also a filter and close button in the top right section of the window. The "Save" button, meanwhile, has had to be shifted due to space issues caused by this change. It now appears by pressing the downward arrow, which also reveals the video description.
The XDA member who spotted this development further reports "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."
It's unclear whether YouTube will stick to its original layout or update the design in favor of this new feature. Either way, we'll find out soon enough.