YouTube test features and experiments

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10/31/19

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What are YouTube feature experiments

YouTube product teams are constantly testing out new tools and features to help you find, watch, share and create content more easily. These test features (sometimes also called “betas” or “experiments”) are usually available for a short period of time and only for a small group of people.

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. Be sure to give YouTube feedback and report any potential technical issues – our teams use this information and experiment results to help us decide if, when, and how to release these features more broadly.

Learn more about some existing feature experiments

To help you keep up with these test features, our TeamYouTube Community Managers will pilot keeping this forum thread updated with cool and interesting ones that we think you’ll want to know about! While this post won’t include every experiment, it’s a good place to start if you’re curious about what we’re testing out, or whether or not you’re currently seeing an experiment.

[Oct 22 2019] Testing out a new comment section on mobile: to make it easier to find comments while you’re watching videos (without having to scroll through the entire list of “Up Next” videos!) we’re testing out a new comment section that appears directly below the video. This experiment is mobile-only and only available to a small percentage of people while we gather feedback. More details.
[Nov 5 2019] Testing out new optional categories in the Subscriptions feed: to make it easier for subscribers to catch up with their favorite creators, we’re testing out new categories in the Subscriptions feed including All, Today, Continue watching, Unwatched, Live & Posts. Videos will be ordered in each of these new categories in chronological order, i.e. latest to oldest. The default subscriptions feed, that is "All", does not change and will continue to list videos from latest to oldest. We're starting these experiments on iOS with a small percentage of people. The experiment will come shortly to Android too!
[Nov 13 2019] Testing out new ways to highlight comments from channel members: to help creators and their channel members more easily recognize and explore comments from the membership community, we’re testing out new ways to highlight comments from members of a channel, including members-only comment sections. This experiment is Android-only and only available to a small percentage of creator channels and their viewers while we gather feedback. More details.

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