YouTube Shorts makeover adds 2x speed and a ‘clear screen’ mode, but removes the dislike button

YouTube just announced a pretty significant overhaul to the Shorts player. The biggest news here is that YouTube is officially retiring the “Dislike” button on Shorts. Going forward, the traditional thumbs-up is being replaced by a TikTok-style heart icon, while the thumbs-down is vanishing from the player entirely.

And to be clear, this isn’t just hiding the public dislike count like they did a few years ago. The button itself is gone. If you want to train the algorithm to stop showing you certain videos, you now have to tap the three-dot menu and select “Not Interested” or “Don’t recommend this channel.” When you hit “Not interested,” YouTube will prompt you to share specific reasons why the content wasn’t for you.

On the surface, I understand the logic here. A dislike could mean anything from poor audio quality to simply disagreeing with an opinion. Forcing viewers to use the “Not Interested” tools gives the recommendation algorithm much better data to work with. But I think for a lot of users, losing that quick, one-tap feedback is going to feel frustrating, and it removes a core piece of how we’ve always interacted with YouTube.

For creators, your historical dislike data will still be visible in YouTube Studio, but that count will stop updating by the end of June. And don’t worry—standard, long-form YouTube videos are keeping their dislike buttons for now.

On a more positive note, we are finally getting native playback speed controls in Shorts. This has been a glaring omission for a long time, and I am thrilled to see it finally arrive. To fast-forward, you simply hold down the edge of the screen, and the video instantly starts playing at 2x speed. Lift your finger, and it drops back to normal. If you want to lock it at 2x for the entire video, just press on the player and swipe down. It is a smart, gesture-based solution that keeps the screen from getting even more cluttered with permanent buttons.

Speaking of clutter, YouTube is also introducing a new “Clear screen” feature. With a single tap, you can hide all the buttons, text, and icons on the screen, giving you a completely unobstructed view of the video.

They are also streamlining the bottom of the player, organizing the audio track, related links, and other features into a single, swipeable carousel under the video title. And if you need to quickly silence a video, you can now tap the screen to pause, and then tap a dedicated mute icon to cut the audio.

According to YouTube, these changes are rolling out over the coming weeks. I think the UI clean-up and the addition of speed controls are fantastic, but the removal of the dislike button is going to be a tough pill for some viewers to swallow. But what are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below.