YouTube decided to hide the dislike counter from public view in late 2021, and it seems the service may now be experimenting with a similar change for likes on videos. Various YouTube users have taken to Reddit and Twitter to report the lack of a like counter in the normal position, and it's instead moved to the video's description. Reports from Reddit users u/morvexT and u/Ghostyscarab372 show videos without like counters, and some follow-up comments report the same issue. We've also seen three separate cases on Twitter with users complaining that the like counter has disappeared in the last 24 hours.
We haven’t been able to replicate the same interface as you can see on these social media posts, which makes us believe it’s a test limited to certain accounts. The like counter is still there for at least two Android Police writers, and there’s currently no confirmation of the experiment from YouTube itself.
One of these reports came from Twitter user @Thabet_Yusuf who confirmed that if they press on the description of the video they are still able to see the like counter. It seems YouTube isn't planning to hide likes away entirely as it did with dislikes, but it may be aiming to make them a touch harder to find than before. Usually, likes appear directly below the video.
So far, all the reports we’ve spotted seem to be for the mobile version of YouTube. We’ve yet to see anyone report this on desktop or devices such as Smart TVs and consoles. Are you finding the like counter has disappeared from your YouTube app? Let us know in the comments.