- YouTube is testing hiding views and upload dates on its homepage.
- The proposed changes have drawn a largely negative initial reaction from fans.
- The platform hasn’t revealed the reasons for the testing, but it could be to encourage engagement with a wider range of videos.
Update, October 30, 2024 (06:27 PM ET): Earlier this week, the internet (or, at least, the subset of it that’s very invested in YouTube) kind of collectively freaked out when the screenshot featured here, appearing to depict a YouTube home page devoid of useful information like upload dates and view counts, started getting attention. No one really seemed to have anything positive to say about it — other than being glad that they weren’t running into this on their own devices. As it turns out, there’s probably a good reason for that, as this wasn’t actually something YouTube was testing at all.
Following up to a thread on X where the screen was shared, the official TeamYouTube account posts that this is not the result of a new interface tweak Google is trying out, but likely a consequence of users installing browser extensions that interfere with the site (via 9to5Google).