YouTube Tests Moving Shorts Dislike Button Into 3-Dot Menu

Q: If you can't easily dislike a video, how does the algorithm know what content you want to avoid?

YouTube can still infer what you want to avoid even if the Shorts dislike button is harder to reach, because its recommendation system relies heavily on behavior, not just explicit taps. The strongest signal is usually watch behavior. If you swipe away from a Short quickly, repeatedly abandon similar videos, or stop engaging with a certain topic or creator, YouTube can read that as disinterest. Low watch time, weak retention, and a broken viewing chain — where one video does not lead you to another related one — are all useful negative signals. The platform also learns from what you do not do. If you rarely like, comment on, share, save, or rewatch a category of Shorts, while doing those things for other categories, that contrast helps the system map your preferences. In practice, implicit signals such as viewing duration and repeat consumption are often more important than a single dislike tap. That said, making dislike less accessible could weaken one of the clearest user-controlled feedback tools. A dislike is a direct instruction that a viewer does not want more of that kind of content. If it is buried in a menu, fewer people may use it, which could make personalization less precise, especially in the short term. Users would still have other direct controls, such as “Not interested” or “Don’t recommend channel,” where available. But if this test expands, YouTube may be shifting more of the burden onto passive behavioral data rather than explicit negative feedback.

1 articles · Updated · Android Police · Jun 9

Reddit users spotted YouTube testing a Shorts redesign that removes the dislike button from the right-side toolbar and appears to place it inside the three-dot overflow menu.
The same test also swaps the thumbs-up icon for a heart, while keeping the like function unchanged; commenters said the new layout has reached only some accounts.
YouTube has run similar Shorts interface experiments in 2024 and 2025, with different versions of the dislike control moved or altered rather than fully removed.
That uneven rollout suggests this is another limited A/B test, and the latest report says the change had not appeared on Android, iOS or web for all users.