Does YouTube hide view count and upload date on the homepage? The company responded to the press
Major UI changes on major platforms such as YouTube often introduced to enhance user experience. However, the updates are not always well received by users, especially when they involve removing familiar user metrics, such as the number of dislikes on a video. Currently, according to a report by Dexerto (as discovered by @vidIQ on X), YouTube is said to be testing a new homepage design that hides video view count and upload date. However, YouTube has since released a statement about X listing a specific condition under which this could happen.
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No views, upload date on home page?
This change, discovered by the X account @vidIQ, has caused significant user dissatisfaction. Later, Dexerto reported about it and mentioned that YouTubers were not very happy about this. In fact, Marques Brownlee, also known as MKBHD, a famous tech YouTuber, responded to Dexerto saying, “Stop chasing Netflix and just be YouTube.”
Some people expressed that while removing view counts is acceptable, removing dates is not ideal. “I roughly get the number of views, but what about the date? Having a newer video on a topic is really important sometimes,” said user X @ThatNerdMert.
Many users noted that hiding view count and upload date on the homepage could lead to videos with lower engagement being overlooked, while some said this change could actually be beneficial. benefits new creators by reducing bias against videos with fewer views.
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YouTube response
In response to the backlash and media coverage, YouTube responded to Dexerto saying: “I’m here to clarify that this can happen if viewers are watching YouTube with certain browser extensions. Certain browsing is enabled. If they disable the extension and are still experiencing this homepage experience, they can submit a report here and we will investigate: https://goo.gle/4fiueJf.”
This suggests that this particular occurrence may be conditional and that if users do not enable certain extensions they will not be affected.
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