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YouTube’s end screens are useful for creators, but often annoying for viewers. They allow creators to insert links to other content during the last moments of the video. The issue, however, is those links appear as large on-screen elements that cover the video you’re watching. While many videos are basically over by this point, some are still going, and you might miss out on the final five to 20 seconds because of the end screen.
Now, YouTube is giving you a way to hide these screen—albeit, with a major caveat. The company announced the change on Wednesday , saying users will now see a “Hide” button on videos that contain and end screen. The Hide button will be in the top-right corner of the player, which you can click to dismiss the end screen and get back to watching your content. If you want to, you can bring back the end screen by clicking a “show” button.
While it sounds like a step in the right direction, this is not a setting that applies to all videos you watch on YouTube. Instead, it only applies to the individual video in question. As such, you’ll need to dismiss the end screen every time you watch a video that has one. This is an odd decision: You need to wait to hide the end screen when you see it, which means you only have five to 20 seconds left in your video anyway. You might even want to rewind the video if you didn’t click the Hide button in time. I’d appreciate having the option at the start of the video at least, but, more so, I’d like the option to dismiss end screens across the board. You only need to take a quick look at The Verge’s comment section on this topic to see I’m not alone.
YouTube says it made this decision based on user feedback, as they’ve heard viewers want to “minimize distractions on videos,” and to “focus on the content they’re watching.” The company is also removing the Subscribe button that appears when you hover over the video’s watermark, as there is already a subscribe option below the player.
