Top 10 YouTube Features that Were Removed

YouTube had cool features that were awesome, but then they were taken off the site, for whoever knows why. Get ready for a trip down memory lane.
The Top Ten
1 Video Editor

Yep, it's gone (Or will be in September, depending on when you found the list). If you want to make simple compilation videos now you have to take the long way. Apparently no one used the editor.

Google you're making a big mistake, a lot of people use video editor.

2 Annotations

Luckily they are removed from YouTube and I won't see them ever again also they are not on YouTube anymore forever due to difficulty to see a Video.

Those boxes that appeared on screen you could click on, or were just for fun little messages, now are replaced with an "End Screen" feature (which will likely disappear in 2025).

To add, existing annotations will remain on Videos, but can't be edited at all.

Useful for interactive videos!

3 Star Ratings

As a general rule, star ratings are useless. They result in a bunch ones and fives and relatively little in between. Video ratings in general, whether they be star ratings or the current like or dislike system, are not good indicators of the quality of a video, especially if the video maker covers a controversial topic, such as feminism or free trade.

I'm quite happy these got replaced with the like/dislike system. Ratings were almost always 1 or 5 stars which rendered the other options in between practically useless.

I don't get why you would get rid of a feature that makes the reception more differentiated. Things are not simply good or bad, they can also be average, or outstanding.

There once was a time where you could rate videos from 1-5 stars, like on Yelp. However, it was deemed as useless and was replaced with the like/dislike buttons.

4 Custom Channel Layouts

This sounds like a great idea, but in some ways it would suck. What if a troll channel put flashing gifs or layered images to slow down or crash your computer? Also, it would be harder to navigate. One channel might put their Subscribe button on the very bottom, while another would put it on the very top.
I think that YouTube should add another form of customizability, but in a way that prevents trolls and still keeps a universal design.

This was such a cool feature, where you could change the theme on you YouTube channel. I don't know what YouTube was thinking getting rid of it.

5 Subscription Collection

This was a feature that allowed you to sort out your subscriptions, and despite its usefulness, it was for some reason removed.

Loved it, helped my have everything that I want, right where I wanted it.

Would've been nice if YouTube kept this.

6 Video Responses

This was a neat way to communicate with other users, but was removed from the site. There are different ways to engage with viewers, but they're just not like the Video Responses.

7 Being Able to Play Snake While Your Video Loaded

You know how if you have no Internet you can play that T-Rex game while you wait for connection? Well this was basically that, but with video loading. I guess because videos load faster now this was taken off.

I remember doing that, I think that it should still be on the site while video is loading. Because it can take about 83483883383838 millenniums.

I remember hearing about this, but when I tried, it didn't work.

That sounds fun, I wish it was not removed.

8 Private Channels
9 The Sidebar

Oh yes, the sidebar. Where you can learn all about the user who uploaded what you were watching. Now you have to scroll down to see that.

Even though the "About" page is a neat replacement, I like the Sidebar more.

10 Making Comments on Videos Meant for Kids

They had some problems with pedophiles and other creepy stuff, I think YouTube made the right call

I hate that they removed this, now I can't comment on spongebob videos if I wanted to

The Contenders
11 Miniplayer for Family Videos

This one was a stupid thing to get rid of. The miniplayer should be enabled for all YouTube videos like it was in 2019 and prior. They got rid of it under the excuse of the stupid COPPA update that was announced in late 2019 and officially ruined YouTube on January 6th, 2020.

12 Featured Content

Featured content, videos or playlists that appear at the bottom of the screen on videos, has been removed due to users clicking them away, and being more likely to click end screens and cards.

13 Comments on Family Videos

I remember the good old days where all videos that enabled comments could have a comment section, but then it was ruined by some idiots. People like them are the reason we can't have nice things.

I hate that they removed comments and disabled them on family videos and videos with minors, it super annoying, and it doesn't feel the same

14 Actual Subscriber Numbers

Subscriber abbreviations suck. Why can't they just show the actual number of subscribers somebody has like they used to?

15 Honors

These were basically achievements within the site that would be shown in the video description, that were taken off long ago. They were cool, I don't know why they were taken off.

Neat little addition

16 Dislike Count
17 Groups

This was a cool way to share videos among friends. I guess it was overshadowed by texting links on your phone. Or Google+. What?!

18 Video Reactions
19 Oldest/Newest Sort for Playlists
20 Private Messages

These could be useful. I don't think many people used them, though.

I remember using this before to message some youtubers it was handy

21 Favourite Videos

Because if I wanted to see my favorite video that I liked 1 year ago, I have to pass through a lot of junk

22 YouTube Friends

This was a way to add your friends in a category, but was likely deemed useless thanks to subscription collections, so it was gone.

23 Discussion Tab

Increasingly gets replaced with community tab instead of co-existing.

24 Private Comments

You used to be able to sent private comments to anyone, like say you wanted to sent a private comment to the uploader to ask something privately, you used to be able to do it, it gone now, now everyone can see your comments, I used to use this back in 2014 when I wanted to sent a private comment

25 Liked Videos in Public
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