YouTube is removing the dislike button from Shorts. YouTube says it is rolling the change out over the coming weeks, after users began noticing the updated Shorts player on different devices. The thumbs-up next to the dislike button has turned into a heart, the same kind of tap that TikTok and Instagram use.
This is not the 2021 change, when YouTube only hid the public count of dislikes. Back then the button still sat there and you could still press it. Now the whole button is deleted from the Shorts player.
Because the button no longer exists on the Shorts player, browser extensions that show dislike information for Shorts may need to adjust how they work, since there is no longer a visible dislike button in the interface. At least for now, it's unclear how third-party extensions like Return YouTube Dislike will handle Shorts without a visible dislike button.
How you say "no" now
To tell YouTube you don't want a video like this, you can use feedback options like Not interested or Don't recommend this channel in the Shorts player. Tap Not interested to give more specific feedback about why a Short isn't for you, using the controls that YouTube provides. So the quick one-tap "no" is gone, and the replacement sits deeper in a menu.
YouTube says the old setup was confusing. A Creator Insider video said that the dislike button, Not interested, and Don't recommend all did similar jobs, which left viewers and the recommendation system unsure which was which. YouTube confirmed the removal in a June 2026 post in its Help Community.
The same update adds a few things people have wanted. It brings 2x playback speed, tap-to-mute, and a Clear screen mode that hides buttons and labels so you just see the video. Long-form videos and live streams keep their dislike button for now. Creators still see their old dislike totals in YouTube Studio, but that number stops going up.
YouTube Help Community post on the Shorts player update, Creator Insider video on the Shorts change
