YouTube announced a set of changes to Shorts timed to the format’s fifth anniversary, adding a Clear Screen mode that strips the icons and overlay text off the screen during playback, plus 2x playback speed and easier audio controls. The platform is also reworking how viewers signal preferences, swapping the thumbs-up for a heart icon and retiring the dislike button entirely. YouTube says it will instead lean on its “Not Interested” and “Don’t recommend this channel” controls to tune feeds, arguing a dislike could mean anything from poor audio to simply not liking a clip, making it a blunt signal. Among the smaller additions is the option to set a Shorts watch timer, including down to zero.
