A few weeks ago the YouTube team confirmed that timed emoji reactions for the videos would be tested in the coming months. It now appears that app users are starting to see the option with specific video content.
The functionality comes in the form of a floating panel that appears when you expand the comment section of the content being played. This floating panel contains a handful of emojis that when you tap will appear just above the playback progress bar.
No information will be shared about who added a particular reaction, but you will be able to see the counters for the various emojis next to them. YouTube initially stated that these timed emojis will change depending on the content and viewers’ reactions.
Timed emoji reactions are coming to the YouTube app
Timed emoji reactions were spotted in YouTube version 17.19.34, but the feature doesn’t seem to appear for all users, plus they’re currently limited to a small number of channels. YouTube creators with videos selected for this experiment must have timed emoji reactions enabled for the option to appear, however, they can also disable the feature.
It is currently unclear how widespread the option is, but it now appears that users are starting to receive it on Android and iOS.