YouTube

YouTube description UI gains expanded Likes and Views counter on mobile

Damien Wilde | May 28 2021 - 1:34 am PT

YouTube on Android and iOS is now more widely rolling out the expanded video description UI that includes more prominent Likes and View counters alongside accurate upload date information within video overflow menus.

When expanding the Description panel on YouTube on mobile, you’ll now be greeted with a prominent top UI panel above any in-depth video information. This new section includes a counter for Likes and Views with the actual upload date also present. If you were wondering, this doesn’t outright replace the “traditional” counters seen in the main preview pane, as it is only visible when expanding or opening the Description of a video. That does mean it simply isn’t visible if you would normally avoid this section.

Our very own Ben Schoon started to sporadically see the change on his own devices just a few weeks ago, but YouTube’s new look description UI appeared to be rolling out in a somewhat limited fashion (h/t Droidmaze). It now looks to be far more widely available across a multitude of our own test devices — including on iOS. It reminds us of the recent Listening Controls that some Premium subscribers are seeing when viewing music videos on the service, although this is simply a way to see information when reading an expanded video description rather than giving you extra playback controls.

One major notable here is that the Dislike count for the YouTube video is removed when expanding out the new description UI. We’re not sure why this is the case, but it’s likely that YouTube does not view it as “key” information. You can’t actually like or dislike a video from this view, either, meaning you’ll need to collapse the Description section to add a comment or like/dislike or access the Share, Download, and Save features.