YouTube is quietly testing a heart-shaped like button on YouTube Shorts, and for some people the dislike button has vanished from the sidebar altogether. The change is showing up on Android, iOS and the web, so whether you scroll Shorts on a Pixel 10 Pro or an iPhone 17 Pro, you could be next in line. If you ask me, this is YouTube admitting out loud that it wants to be TikTok so badly it can taste it.
What is happening to the like button
A new report rounded up a wave of Reddit sightings where the familiar thumbs-up on Shorts gets swapped for a heart, matching animation included. The button works exactly the same, it just looks like it was lifted straight out of Instagram Reels.
The dislike button is the bigger story here, though. For some testers it has disappeared from the sidebar entirely, with Reddit users reporting it now hides inside the three-dot menu, and there is no official announcement or listing on YouTube's experiments page to explain any of it.
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One Reddit user shared a clip of the new look, and it is worth a close inspection. The heart sits directly above a regular thumbs-down in their sidebar, so the two changes clearly don't always travel together, and judging by the poster's caption, which simply asks why, the new icon isn't winning hearts of its own just yet.
The heart button living right next to a regular thumbs-down. | Image by Nientea via Reddit
YouTube has been starving the dislike button since 2021
TikTok and Instagram settled on the heart years ago, and neither has ever bothered with a visible dislike on its vertical feed. YouTube, meanwhile, announced back in 2021 that public dislike counts were going away, while promising the button itself would stick around.
That promise has been aging poorly ever since. A thumbs-down that shows no number and barely dents your recommendations is a button in name only, and this test quietly finishes the job.
Where do you stand on YouTube's Shorts button shake-up?
Reddit asked the right question months ago
Over on Reddit, a thread on r/youtube summed up the mood three months before this test even surfaced. The poster asked what the dislike button even does anymore, pointing out that the count is hidden and YouTube keeps serving disliked videos regardless. It is anecdotal sentiment, sure, but it mirrors what I have been hearing from viewers for years.
What is the dislike button even for these days? | Image by IhateTaylorSwift13 via Reddit
This was only a matter of time
Personally, this changes nothing for me. The dislike button has been on death row as far as I am concerned for years now, and YouTube was always going to pull the lever eventually.
What does sting a little is the identity erosion. The thumbs-up predates Shorts, predates TikTok, and was one of the last visual elements separating Shorts from every other vertical feed, so swapping it for a heart turns Shorts into a TikTok clone with a red logo.
And if all this scrolling talk hits too close to home, we recently covered a setting that lets you pause your Shorts feed entirely.
TikTok and Reels users, take this as a compliment
If you live on TikTok or Instagram Reels, nothing here affects your daily scrolling, except as proof that your apps set the rules now. Neither platform needs to lose sleep over YouTube out-TikToking them when YouTube is still copying the homework, heart by heart.
That is my read on it, anyway. For more hot takes and behind-the-scenes coverage, you can follow me on X and Threads.
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Johanna Romero is a Senior News Writer at PhoneArena, covering mobile technology news across Android, iOS, wearables, and the Google ecosystem she knows best. Drawing on 15 years in IT and tech support from 2007 to 2022, she brings a user-friendly eye for the practical features and lesser-known tricks readers care about. Google named her an official #TeamPixel member in 2022, and she also reviews the latest devices on her YouTube channel, JoJo the Techie.
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