Retired YouTube Features

YouTube's best-known removals are annotations, which disappeared from every video on Jan 15, 2019, and Stories, which shut down on Jun 26, 2023. Each retirement below gives the date, what the feature did, why YouTube said it went, and what to use now. Several of them still break old links, tutorials and embeds, which is why people keep searching for them.

George Vanous, who runs the Freedom! YouTube network, recorded several of these changes on his channel as they happened; those videos describe YouTube as it was on the day.

Quick facts

Sources for each row are given in its section below.

Annotations (until 2019)

Annotations were the colored text boxes and speech bubbles creators laid over their videos, often with links to other videos, subscribe prompts or "choose your own adventure" branches. YouTube stopped letting anyone add new annotations in May 2017, and in November 2018 it announced that all remaining annotations would stop showing on Jan 15, 2019. Its reasons were that annotation use had fallen by more than 70% after cards and end screens arrived in 2016, and that annotations never worked in the mobile apps (Engadget, Nov 27, 2018; Android Authority).

1:00 George's video "No YouTube ads in first 10,000 views - Goodbye annotations forever" covered the end of the annotations editor in 2017: from May, old annotations could still be deleted but no longer changed, and YouTube pointed creators to cards and end screens because they work on phones. Cards (the small "i" panel in the top corner) and end screens (clickable elements over a video's last seconds) do the same job today.

Ads only after 10,000 views (2017 to 2018)

0:25 On Apr 6, 2017 YouTube announced that it would no longer serve ads on Partner Program videos until a channel reached 10,000 lifetime views, after which the channel would be reviewed against its policies. George, reporting it that month, took it as a response to the advertiser boycott and to advertisers' pressure for higher-quality videos. The rule lasted less than a year: on Jan 16, 2018 YouTube replaced it with 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time in the past 12 months, applied to existing partners from Feb 20, 2018. The thresholds have changed again since: see YouTube Partner Program and Partner Program Changes in 2027.

Private messages (2018 and 2019)

0:00 YouTube removed private messaging twice. The old messages inbox in Creator Studio, under Community > Messages, closed first: George's video "YouTube deleting all your private messages on Jul 9, 2018" warned creators to read their messages before that date, after which they could no longer be sent, received or read; YouTube's reason was that the feature "was not widely used". Then the in-app Messages feature, added in 2017 for sharing videos and chatting in groups of up to 30, was shut down on Sep 18, 2019, with YouTube saying it would focus on public conversations such as comments. Creators who want private contact today list a business email on their channel.

Poll cards (until 2020)

0:00 Cards could once hold a poll: a question with up to five answers, shown in the video's corner with results in real time, and creators saw the answers in YouTube Analytics. George's video "YouTube removed poll cards on June 10 2020" reported their removal from all videos on Jun 10, 2020, a date YouTube Studio itself showed to anyone creating a new card. Polls live on in posts (the former Community tab) and, since October 2024, as poll stickers in Shorts.

Community contributions (2020)

Community contributions let viewers write captions, subtitles and translated titles for other people's videos. YouTube removed the feature on Sep 28, 2020, saying it was rarely used: fewer than 0.001% of channels had published community captions in the month before the announcement, and creators and viewers had reported "problems" with it (Tubefilter, Jul 31, 2020). Creators add their own captions now, and YouTube makes automatic ones: see Captions and Subtitles.

Older unlisted videos made private (2021)

0:00 On Jun 23, 2021 YouTube announced that unlisted videos uploaded before Jan 1, 2017 would be switched to private starting Jul 23, 2021, because their links lacked a 2017 security update that made unlisted addresses harder to guess. Creators could opt out with a form before that date; anyone who did nothing found their old embeds and shared links stopped working. George's video "All your older Unlisted videos are Privated on July 23, 2021 by YouTube!" urged creators to opt out in time, warning that embeds of those videos on other sites would break; his Freedom Central channel alone had 218 unlisted videos from before 2017. Help's page on older unlisted content confirms the change went ahead and that videos uploaded from 2017 on were not touched (YouTube Help). There is no way back: a video made private that day can be made public, or re-uploaded as unlisted with a new link, but its old unlisted link is gone.

Public dislike counts (2021)

On Nov 10, 2021 YouTube made the dislike count private on every video. The dislike button stayed, viewers' dislikes still shape their own recommendations, and creators still see the exact count in YouTube Studio. YouTube said an experiment showed hiding the number reduced coordinated dislike attacks, which fell hardest on smaller channels.

Custom URLs (2022)

0:44 Before handles, a channel needed 100 subscribers to claim a custom address such as youtube.com/c/name. On Oct 10, 2022 YouTube introduced handles, a unique @name with its own youtube.com/@name address for every channel; channels that had a custom URL generally got it as their handle, and old custom URLs still redirect. See Handles.

Shorts Fund (2021 to 2023)

0:00 The Shorts Fund paid monthly bonuses to Shorts creators chosen by performance; their Shorts had to be original and free of other apps' watermarks. It ended when ad revenue sharing for Shorts began on Feb 1, 2023, and YouTube said it expected most Fund recipients to earn more under the new model. See Shorts Monetization.

Stories (2017 to 2023)

0:00 Stories were short, mobile-only posts that expired after seven days. George's video "YouTube Stories - Like TikTok on YouTube!" showed them in use while they were still a beta for channels with at least 10,000 subscribers: photos or videos of up to 15 seconds, seen only in the mobile app, in a Stories tab on the channel, and kept apart from a channel's regular videos so they did not compete for views. YouTube announced on May 25, 2023 that creating Stories would end on Jun 26, 2023, with Stories already posted staying up for up to seven more days; a spokesperson said it was so YouTube could focus on "key areas that creators need" (TechCrunch). YouTube pointed creators to YouTube Shorts, posts and live streams instead.

What creators say

1:22 George Vanous of Freedom! did not mourn annotations when he reported their end in April 2017: some of them, he said, "did look very 80s", with colorful boxes splattered over a video until it was hard to see.

0:40 Poll cards were another matter. In his 2020 video on their removal George called them a feature he "really found" useful, read out a viewer who was "so sad" to lose them, and asked his audience for a replacement, admitting he did not have one. A poll in his next video, four days before the removal, found 89% of 67 voters wanting to keep them, while YouTube's Help article said the feature was "rarely used".

2:14 When Stories were new, George called them "a pretty cool concept" and said he liked that YouTube was trying to bring short-form content together with long-form videos, and that he would be using them.

Frequently asked questions

When did YouTube remove annotations? YouTube stopped letting creators add new annotations in May 2017 and removed all remaining annotations from every video on Jan 15, 2019. Cards and end screens replaced them.

Can I still send private messages on YouTube? YouTube removed its in-app messages on Sep 18, 2019, after closing the old Creator Studio inbox on Jul 9, 2018. Creators who want to be contacted privately list a business email on their YouTube channel.

Why did YouTube remove Stories? YouTube said it ended Stories on Jun 26, 2023 to focus on Shorts, posts and live streams, and told TechCrunch that creators using both saw many more subscribers from Shorts.

Why did my old unlisted YouTube videos become private? YouTube made unlisted videos uploaded before Jan 1, 2017 private from Jul 23, 2021, unless the creator opted out, because their links lacked a 2017 security update. The old links cannot be restored; the video can be made public or re-uploaded as unlisted.

Can I still see dislikes on YouTube? Only the creator can, in YouTube Studio. YouTube hid public dislike counts on every video on Nov 10, 2021, but kept the dislike button.

What replaced YouTube custom URLs? Handles, introduced on Oct 10, 2022. Every YouTube channel can have a youtube.com/@name address, and old custom URLs redirect to the channel.

Sources

• YouTube will remove pop-up annotations on January 15th, Engadget, Nov 27, 2018
• YouTube annotations discontinued, Android Authority
• Introducing Expanded YouTube Partner Program Safeguards to Protect Creators, YouTube Blog, Apr 6, 2017
• Additional Changes to the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) to Better Protect Creators, YouTube Blog, Jan 16, 2018
• YouTube is removing its direct messaging feature in September, Engadget, Aug 20, 2019
• YouTube community captions shutdown, Tubefilter, Jul 31, 2020
• Update to YouTube Unlisted Links, YouTube Blog, Jun 23, 2021
• Older unlisted content, YouTube Help, read Nov 6, 2026
• An update to dislikes on YouTube, YouTube Blog, Nov 10, 2021
• Introducing handles: A new way to identify your YouTube channel, YouTube Blog, Oct 10, 2022
• YouTube rolls out new Partner Program terms as Shorts revenue sharing begins on February 1, TechCrunch, Jan 9, 2023
• YouTube is gamifying the creator-viewer connection, Tubefilter, Oct 23, 2024
• YouTube Stories are shutting down June 26 as company focuses on Shorts, TechCrunch, May 25, 2023
• No YouTube ads in first 10,000 views - Goodbye annotations forever, Freedom!, Apr 16, 2017 (video)
• YouTube deleting all your private messages on Jul 9, 2018, Freedom!, Jun 14, 2018 (video)
• YouTube removed poll cards on June 10 2020 :-(, Freedom!, Jun 4, 2020 (video)
• All your older Unlisted videos are Privated on July 23, 2021 by YouTube!, Freedom!, Jun 27, 2021 (video)
• YouTube Stories - Like TikTok on YouTube!, Freedom!, Jul 4, 2020 (video)
• Handles on YouTube, YouTube Creators, Oct 10, 2022 (video)
• Shorts in the YouTube Partner Program: Eligibility, YouTube Creators, Feb 1, 2023 (video)
• 89% voted: Keep poll cards! - Two new YouTube features, Freedom!, Jun 6, 2020 (video)