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YouTube Adds Per-Video Hide Button for End Screens and Removes Desktop Hover-to-Subscribe

Responding to viewer feedback, YouTube says experiments show the tweaks have only marginal effects on engagement.

Overview

  • Viewers can now tap a Hide button in the top-right of the player to dismiss end-screen overlays, with a Show option to bring them back.
  • The control applies only to the current video, so users need to select Hide again on subsequent videos.
  • On desktop, YouTube is eliminating the subscribe prompt that appeared when hovering over a channel watermark, citing redundancy with the standard subscribe button below videos.
  • YouTube reports less than a 1.5% decline in views from end screens in tests and says hover-to-subscribe accounted for roughly 0.05% of channel subscriptions.
  • Creators can still add end screens and watermarks, and outlets have observed the Hide button live in the Android app as the rollout takes effect.