YouTube debunks viral homepage layout that hides video view counts and upload date

3 weeks ago 3

A screenshot of the YouTube homepage with videos that don’t show upload dates or view counts has been shared across social media this week, but YouTube says the new layout isn’t official.

Shared by VidIQ on Twitter/X and amplified by Dextero, a layout of the YouTube homepage showing no upload dates or view counts was shown in a screenshot and claimed to be in testing. No parties sharing the screenshot clarified how many users were actually seeing the altered layout.

YouTube, though, has confirmed this is not something being tested.

Rather, the official @TeamYouTube account on Twitter/X responded to the viral tweet which had racked up over 17 million views saying that this layout may happen “if viewers are watching YouTube with certain browser extensions enabled” and encouraged users to report the behavior if they saw it without browser extensions enabled.

The exact extensions that may cause this behavior are not mentioned, and as the original source of the screenshot was never revealed, it’s hard to know what extension might be causing the problem. In any case, YouTube’s response makes clear that this layout is not being tested.