In December of 2021, YouTube has announced the removal of the possibility to see the number of dislikes on all videos. Thus, now it is possible to see the amount of dislikes of the video only in the analytics, but not other users will be able to see that anymore. This change was quite controversial since it caused people to lose some valuable information.
Why YouTube Removed Dislikes
According to the company, the reason for that change was the protection of smaller creators from the organized disliking campaigns, when a group of people was organizing a campaign in order to ruin someone’s reputation and block his/her channel forever. While this change indeed helped to decrease the level of harassment, but the change was applied to all videos, not just to those that were vulnerable to such actions.
Why Dislike Counts Matter
The amount of dislikes provided valuable information to users on how good the video is.
- Quality indicator: Video with more dislikes than likes is of dubious quality.
- Scam detection: Tutorial or tech videos with lots of dislikes contain outdated or false information.
- Time saving: Helps not to waste time on low-quality videos.
- Community feedback: Dislike statistics are one of the ways of expression of community opinions.
- Accountability: Visibility of the dislike statistics forced creators to care about the quality and accuracy.
Return YouTube Dislike Extension
In order to fight against this decision of YouTube, the Return YouTube Dislike project has been created. It is a browser extension that allows users to restore the amount of dislikes on the YouTube videos using archived statistics and estimated statistics based on the interaction of the extension users. It is available for all popular browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Edge and others.
Return Dislike on YouTube Vanced
YouTube Vanced has a feature of showing the dislike count directly in the app, no need to use any browser extensions or any additional software. You only need to activate the feature in the Vanced settings and the dislike count will start appearing under each video just like before.
Thanks to the account synchronization with Vanced MicroG, your likes and dislikes become part of the community statistics database and thus help to make the statistics more accurate for other users.
How Accurate are the Restored Dislikes
The restored statistics are generated based on archived numbers before the change and real-time interaction of the extension users. Popular and widely watched videos provide quite precise statistics, while the less known or fresh videos have some imprecise statistics, but still it is better than having no information at all.
Enabling Return Dislike on Desktop
- Download the extension: You should find the Return YouTube Dislike in your browser’s extension store.
- No configuration required: Extension works right out of the box.
- Check any video: The dislike statistics appears automatically under all videos.
- Contribute data: Your interaction helps to increase the accuracy of statistics for everyone.
Who Will Benefit from Return Dislike
- Tutorial watchers: Users that use community feedback to find correct guides.
- Tech viewers: People that use reviews and comparisons before purchasing something.
- Careful viewers: All users that need quality indicators before watching the video.
- General users: All users that appreciate transparency and community feedback.
Conclusion
Dislike statistics were an integral part of YouTube experience that helped many viewers to make more reasonable decisions when choosing videos to watch. Now thanks to the Return YouTube Dislike extension on the desktop and YouTube Vanced on mobile, it is possible to restore that essential function.
