Currently, the YouTube app on Android displays likes and counts, but they don’t change while you’re watching the video. However, this addition updates the likes and views of the video in real time with a nifty animation. This dynamic view and like count animation appears regardless of whether the video is playing or paused. Furthermore, the animation preceding the change in numbers seems to be triggered even when you switch to another app and reopen YouTube.
We couldn’t find any YouTube blogs or other documentation pointing to this minor but useful feature, although there’s aReddit post from Octoberthat appears to reference it, with one user offering asolution to stop this behavior.
It’s hard to ascertain when this feature went live on the app without any word from the YouTube team. Moreover, this experiment appears to be limited to a select section of YouTube users around the globe. I couldn’t find it on the Android version of YouTube, though AP’s Google editorManuel Vonaucould, and got us the video attached above. This phenomenon is explained clearly on the YouTubetest features and experimentsthread:
“If you ever notice that YouTube looks a bit different for you than it does for your friend or family member, you’re likely seeing one of these experiments.”
The latest entry we can find on the YouTube experiments page is from over two weeks ago, when the team announced the limited rollout ofAI-generated soundtracksfor YouTube Shorts content. We’ve been closely watching some of the other under-development features that are being tested on the platform, and some are less popular than others.
A couple of members of the Android Police team recently spotted the wider rollout of asmaller buttonto skip ads, with the button itself being renamed toSkip. We got our first taste of this changein August, albeit in a limited capacity. This isn’t as cruel as making people sit through up to 11 consecutive unskippable ads as part of an experiment, although theresultant backlashled to the company eventually giving up on these plans.
