YouTube brings some cheer to its 'like' button with a fun new animation

Clearly, the one thing YouTube needed was colorful confetti

Last month, in an attempt to create an "inclusive and respectful" environment, Google hid YouTube dislike counts for viewers. That was a pretty controversial move, and now Google's turning its attention to the "like" button next. Worry not, though, because you're neither losing the ability to give videos a thumbs-up, nor see how many other viewers agree. Instead, tapping the "like" button has picked up a cheerful little animation to make liking a video that much more exciting.

This jazzy new animation is currently only available on the YouTube app for Android and iOS, and was first spotted about a month ago by Redditor /u/LanDest021 (via 9to5Google). It's a pretty fun, if inconsequential new look — the button is subject to a flurry of color changes while expelling a cloud of colorful streamers and confetti before settling back down to a sober and static black. Unfortunately, the button remains as plain and boring as ever on desktop.

While this animation isn't as disruptive as the removal of dislike counts, it's certainly eye-catching. It's likely this is a subtle push to encourage people to award more thumbs-ups, but while the animation is attractive, it's doubtful how much it will change behaviors. The animation for tapping the "dislike" button hasn't been similarly updated, and currently creates a pop-up window that links to a support page detailing all recent changes to the platform. Unfortunately, If you're not a fan of either feature, neither can be disabled.

If you aren't seeing the animation you can try downloading updating your app or grabbing the last version of YouTube from APKMirror.