YouTube now lets you hide recommendation pop-ups at the end of videos

YouTube has announced a new feature that allows users to conceal end screen recommendations at the conclusion of videos. This enhancement, revealed on Wednesday, enables viewers to simply tap a newly added "Hide" button located in the top-right corner of the video player to eliminate the end screen suggestions for the video they are currently watching. Importantly, this removal is temporary; it only applies to the ongoing video, allowing users to restore the end screen by clicking the "Show" button whenever they wish. This change addresses a common concern among users, as end screens can sometimes obstruct the final moments of videos, making it difficult to fully engage with the content. In addition to this feature, YouTube is also discontinuing the "Subscribe" button that appears when users hover over a video's branded watermark. The platform explains that since a "Subscribe" button is already positioned directly beneath the video player, the hover option is redundant. These updates come as a direct response to user feedback, with many viewers requesting fewer distractions during their viewing experience. YouTube assures creators that they can still incorporate end screens into their videos, and anticipates that these changes will have a negligible effect on creators' engagement metrics. In fact, internal research revealed that allowing users to hide end screens resulted in less than a 1.5% drop in views from these elements, with hover-to-subscribe functionalities accounting for less than 0.05% of overall channel subscriptions.