Sometimes a video on YouTube deserves more detailed comments than a simple comment or a “bravo”. YouTube appears to be testing specific emoji reactions for a small group of users. Viewers can throw an emoji at a specific moment in a video.
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Users can get a sense of how others reacted during a video. There will be a separate reaction panel in the comments section of each video that will display emoji reactions, similar to features already offered by Facebook Live and Twitch.
«If you are watching a video that is part of this experiment, you can react and see the crowd's reactions by opening the video's comment section and clicking the reaction box. The test will also show you at which moments other viewers react (which will be anonymous – you will not see who made each reaction). We are testing multiple sets of reactions and will add or remove reactions based on the experiment's progress!», wrote Meaghan, a spokesperson for the YouTube Team.
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Google often experiments with new features on YouTube, but they are not always released to the public. YouTube recently tested allowing users to hide the “dislike” button.
Emoji reactions have been hit or miss on other social media platforms. Twitter experimented with emoji reactions to tweets last year, and the reactions were largely mixed. But unlike tweets, videos are a longer medium and are more likely to generate a range of reactions. YouTube creators are likely to get more detailed feedback from users through emoji.
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YouTube initially tests emoji reactions on a small number of channels, but will expand the feature based on user feedback. Users will have a wide variety of emoji reactions available to them.
Information source: engadget.com
