YouTube annotations, those annoying translucent boxes that you rush to disable the moment they appear, will finally disappear for good on January 15th, 2019. After this date, “all existing annotations will be removed,” according to a YouTube support page.
YouTube annotations will disappear for good in January
It’s all Cards and End Screens from now on
It’s all Cards and End Screens from now on
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The writing’s been on the wall about annotations for some time now. Back in March 2017, YouTube announced that it would be discontinuing the annotations editor, effectively halting their use for any new videos. At the time, the company said that since introducing Cards and End Screens, the use of annotations had decreased by 70 percent. Annotations have also never worked properly on mobile, which is where the majority of YouTube watching now takes place.
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