YouTube Testing New “Save” Button for Shorts
YouTube is always looking for ways to improve user experience, and their latest experiment involves a new feature for Shorts viewers. They are testing a “Save” button that will make it easier for users to bookmark their favorite Shorts clips within the app. As part of this test, YouTube is also moving the “Dislike” button from the main Shorts UI.
In this new test, the “Dislike” icon will be replaced by the “Save” button, providing users with an easier way to save content for later viewing or for creating playlists. YouTube explains:
“To make it easier to bookmark Shorts that you love, want to return to, or want to watch later, we’re experimenting with a “Save” button in the Shorts player. If you’re a viewer in the test group, you’ll see the ‘Save’ icon which you can use to save Shorts to a new or existing playlist. To make room for the Save button, we moved our Shorts player menu around. In this experiment, the “Dislike” button is now housed in the 3-dot menu icon. To dislike a Short and share feedback, click the 3-dot icon in the top right of the Short you’re watching then select ‘Dislike’ from the menu.”
While the “Dislike” button has been moved to a deeper menu, users can still provide feedback through this option. This change may influence the feedback loop for Shorts and impact how users interact with the platform. YouTube’s algorithm considers various factors like watch time and engagement to personalize the Shorts feed.
It’s noteworthy that YouTube is making this adjustment based on user behavior, suggesting that viewers may not be using the dislike feature as frequently as the like button. This shift reflects evolving user preferences and showcases YouTube’s commitment to refining its platform based on user feedback.
Adding to the complexity, there is already a “Not interested” option in the three dots menu, so users now have multiple ways to indicate their feelings towards a video. This experimentation highlights both functional and behavioral trends within the platform.
YouTube emphasizes that this is currently a limited test, rolling out to a small group of mobile viewers. It remains to be seen how this experiment will influence user engagement and content discovery on the platform.