YouTube’s New Comment Control Feature for Managing Video Interactions

YouTube is rolling out a novel feature designed to provide enhanced control over video comments. This innovative option allows content creators to disable future comments on specific videos while retaining all previously posted comments. This development empowers video publishers with a more versatile way to oversee the discourse surrounding their content.

At present, YouTube permits users to deactivate video comments, both at the channel and individual video levels. However, this action results in the deactivation of all comments, including those that were posted prior to the change. While creators can hold comments for review, there hasn’t been a straightforward method to halt comments at a particular point.

This new process introduces a middle ground solution, enabling creators to maintain a level of ongoing discussion even when opting to disable comments. YouTube is calling this new feature “Pause.”

As per YouTube’s official explanation:

“We’re experimenting with a new comment moderation setting called ‘Pause’ that allows creators to prevent the creation of new comments at the video level while preserving comments that were already published. If you’re in the experiment, you’ll see the option to select ‘pause’ in your video-level comment settings (located in the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner of the comments panel) on the watch page in the YouTube app or in YouTube Studio on both desktop and mobile.”

This straightforward feature offers content creators greater control over the discussions related to their videos, proving particularly useful in situations where content attracts unwanted attention, such as during news events or coordinated attacks.

When this setting is activated, viewers will encounter a “Comments are paused” notification in the comment section. This alerts them to the update while still allowing them to peruse previous comments.

Furthermore, creators involved in the testing phase will now have three distinct comment control categories: “On,” “Pause,” and “Off,” along with additional sub-settings for comment moderation. This additional feature presents an excellent way for video publishers to curate their YouTube experience.

YouTube is currently testing this new comment control option with a limited number of channels to gauge its effectiveness and gather feedback.