YouTube Testing Timed Comments For Some Users - Android

YouTube is in the works of testing out an interesting new feature for those who love to give their two cents on videos. The company is auditioning timed YouTube comments. This news comes to us via the YouTube help page. This gives you the ability to have your comments appear during a specific moment in [...]

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The post YouTube Testing Timed Comments For Some Users appeared first on Android Headlines.

YouTube is in the works of testing out an interesting new feature for those who love to give their two cents on videos. The company is auditioning timed YouTube comments. This news comes to us via the YouTube help page.

This gives you the ability to have your comments appear during a specific moment in the video

When you comment on a video, your comment will be visible throughout the entirety of the video. The timed YouTube comments feature will give you the ability to have your comment appear only at the point in the video that you write it. This could be useful for people who want to highlight certain events that happen.

You could add in your criticism or commentary for a specific event that happens. Having the comment appear right at that moment gives the viewer more context as to what’s happening.

You can do something like this now, just add the time in your comment, and when it’s posted, there will be a link that will transport you to that exact moment when you click on it. It’s just a little tedious finding that moment and typing down the time.

Timed YouTube comments could have some downsides, however

This feature sounds fun, but it might bring some headaches. Firstly, there might be a sweet spot where this feature proves most useful. Videos that get a moderate amount of commenters will do fine. However, many YouTubers have their comment sections fill up with thousands upon thousands of comments.

There will be a consistent inflow of comments popping up each second. It’ll get flooded rather quickly. YouTube might have to limit the comment visibility to only top-rated comments.

Secondly, this could lead to people posting more comments than necessary. Instead of posting the summation of their thoughts and opinions in one comment, a person could comment for every significant event that happens in the video. We all shudder to think about the person who comments “LOL” for every joke said on a comedic video.

We also can’t rule out the people who would intentionally use this feature to flood the video timeline with comments. People who would constantly spam comments just to inconvenience the content creator and other viewers. More work will fall on the shoulder of YouTube’s algorithm to filter those comments.

YouTube is testing this on a small selection of people

YouTube stated that this feature is being tested on only a small selection of users. Since this is YouTube we’re talking about, that “small” selection could mean millions of users. They said that they may plan on rolling the feature out to a broader audience if the feedback from the testing leans positively.

The company isn’t guaranteeing that it will roll the feature out. To check if you were selected, go to a video, look at the comment section and check the “sorting” option. If you see “Timed Beta”, you were selected.

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