Key Facts

• YouTube Shorts is introducing a "Clear Screen" mode that temporarily hides all icons and text from the playback view, providing an immersive and distraction-free experience, accessible through the overflow menu in the top-right corner.
• The Shorts player now allows users to double the playback speed, a feature that was one of the most requested by the Shorts community, and also includes an easy mute option by tapping the screen to pause and then tapping the mute icon.
• The dislike button on YouTube Shorts is being replaced with "Don't recommend this channel" and "Not Interested" options in the overflow menu, allowing users to provide more precise feedback and tune their feed more accurately.
• The "Not Interested" option offers further specificity, enabling users to select from choices like Irrelevant, Boring, and others, to help YouTube better understand their genuine preferences.
• YouTube has also replaced the thumbs down button with a heart icon, intended to be a more meaningful way for users to express when a video truly connects with them, as part of the updates to the Shorts player.