YouTube may be testing hidden like counts on videos, but it could just be a bug

YouTube seems to be tinkering with its mobile app layout again, and this time it could be another subject of controversy. It looks like the platform might be hiding the public like counts on videos for some users. At the same time, there is a solid chance this is nothing more than a glitch affecting only certain accounts. Either way, the topic blew up on Reddit over the past day, with several threads full of users sharing their thoughts on it.

One thread from Kiqox_Ue, who simply posted a screenshot with a title “where are the likes,” picked up more than 80 upvotes in the past day. Plenty of others jumped in to confirm they were seeing the same thing, though it only happened on some accounts and not others.

A handful of commenters pointed out that the count still showed up in the video description or other spots, which makes the whole thing feel less like a deliberate removal and more like a test run or just a sloppy visual bug.

Another Reddit user, Johnmatthewwhy, described it as the worst interface tweak YouTube has rolled out in ages. Replies quickly turned into the usual mix of complaints, guesses about whether it was a full rollout, an A/B test, or the app simply breaking again.

Not long after that, a post titled “They removed the likes” from user meb1111 drew even more attention. Frustrated commenters called the move pointless and poorly thought out. Still, quite a few people replied that they could see the like counts just fine on their own devices, so it is tough to call this a done deal.

In my tests on both Android and iOS devices, I could still see the like counts besides the like button just fine.

One user on X, @ThePhoneFuel, posted a screenshot showing the like counts hidden away from the like button, but he mentioned, “See where the like count is hiding now on youtube videos.” So it’s likely that the like counts have been repositioned rather than completely removed, unlike the dislike counter, which still draws criticism to this day.

For the moment, this could be a small test that has not reached everyone yet, or it might just be another bug. After all, just yesterday we highlighted a bug that’s causing users to see a ‘No views’ label on videos in the search results. Whatever the reason turns out to be, users have definitely noticed, and most of them do not seem happy about it at all.

Since I’ve not been able to reproduce this on my end, I also cannot say for certain where the like counter has shifted now (if at all). It might be in the description, but I’ll wait for further details and will update the article accordingly.

Featured image credit: u/Kiqox_Ue / Reddit

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