YouTube Introduces Community Notes Feature

The YouTuber has announced a new method for adding context to videos on their platform, which bears a strong resemblance to Twitter/X’s Community Notes.

In March 2021, a new feature called Community Notes was introduced on Elon Musk’s Twitter/X platform. This feature allows users to add more information to popular tweets, and many notes have been utilized to warn others about misleading content.

The note can be written by one person, and it will be voted on by others to determine its helpfulness. The result of the vote will determine whether the note is displayed underneath the post.

On June 17, 2024, YouTube revealed that they would be launching an experimental feature that is similar to Community Notes, allowing users to provide context for videos, even if they are not the creator of the video.

“In their blog post, they announced that they will be conducting a test of a new feature which will enable users to add notes to videos. This feature aims to provide pertinent, timely, and easily comprehensible information for viewers.”

“As an illustration, this may involve annotations that specify when a song is intended as a parody, highlight the release of a new version of a reviewed product, or inform viewers when older footage is mistakenly presented as a recent occurrence.”

YouTube will soon allow viewers to add context to videos, similar to Community Notes pic.twitter.com/DtWhP8WgYx

— dexerto (@dexerto) June 17, 2024

The format of YouTube’s notes closely resembles that of Twitter’s Community Notes. A user provides the initial context, and others can vote on whether the note is helpful, somewhat helpful, or unhelpful. Notes that receive a high number of helpful votes will be shown below the video.

The company explicitly stated that they expect there to be errors in notes, but emphasized that these mistakes will serve as valuable learning opportunities during the initial launch of the experiment.

Initially, notes will only be released to a small number of users, who will receive either an email or a notification in their creator studio. In order to be chosen, channels must be at least six months old and have had no violations of the community guidelines within the last year.

Additionally, the account must not have “multiple owners”or be a child’s account monitored by their parents using YouTube’s in-app features.

Many individuals promptly utilized social media to express their opinions about the new feature, and the majority are not enthusiastic about it.

“One user responded, joking “Lmfao this can’t be good.”

Someone else asked, “Isn’t there already a designated comment section for this?”

A third person commented, “Why bother? Just read the comments under a video. They should bring back the dislike button and other features that were removed instead.”

YouTube’s most recent update to the video platform is simply the latest in a series of updates. The company first introduced a retro layout in April, and then in June, they implemented a new method for displaying ads that could potentially bypass ad-blocking technology.