The YouTube video platform is nowadays as popular as any social media application. It provides its users with billions of video content to watch. From tutorials to funny videos, almost anything can be found on YouTube. That is, YouTube has now become a lifestyle and has answers to all your questions. If you use YouTube regularly to watch videos, then you might’ve come across pinned comments and highlighted comments on YouTube. A pinned comment is simply a comment pinned to the top by the uploader of the video. But what is this tag that displays highlighted comment? Let us figure out what it is and see some more interesting info about YouTube comments.
What is the meaning of a highlighted YouTube comment?
A highlighted comment appears on YouTube so that you can easily find & interact with the particular comment. Neither users nor creators choose to highlight comments. It is just a feature which helps make your wayfinding easy. A highlighted comment occurs when you get to a comment from a link or email. That is, a highlighted comment on YouTube appears when you get the notification that someone commented on your video and you clicked on that notification. When you click on that notification, it will redirect to the video but marks the comment as highlighted for you to find it easier to find.
Does the uploader highlight your comment?
This is a common myth that prevails among some people. It is absolutely a myth. Your comment or any other comment is not highlighted by the uploader; YouTube just shows a Highlighted comment tag because it would be easy for you to find that particular comment and you came to this video through a notification or link for this specific comment. In this video URL, there will be a reference key to your comment. That’s why the particular comment is highlighted.
For Example, look at the following URL:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=&lc=[link to comment]
This link to the comment section will contain a string of characters that redirect to a particular comment. YouTube marks that comment as a highlighted comment. In YouTube links to videos, you would not find the “link to comment” part. Only if it redirects to a specific comment, you will find that.
What are some uses of this feature of highlighted comments?
Here are some of the features of highlighted comments on YouTube:
- Easy navigation to your comment – You can easily find your comment on the top and reply to it.
- Easy navigation to comments on your video – If someone has commented on your video, you can easily navigate to that particular comment.
- Comment sharing – You can use this feature to share some comments with your friends or colleagues.
1. Navigation to your comment
A highlighted comment paves the way for easier navigation. It simply is a way to ‘bring to notice’ a particular comment.
When someone replies to or likes your comment, you will get a notification from YouTube. When you click on that notification, YouTube will take you to the comments section of the video. There you’ll see ‘highlighted comment’ on the top corner of your comment, next to your account name. It’s just a way in which YouTube helps you from losing your comment in the flood of other comments. Only you can see the words ‘highlighted comment’ on the top left side of your comment.
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2. Navigation to comments on your video
Suppose if you are a video uploader on YouTube and somebody comments on your video. When someone comments on your video, YouTube notifies you either through notifications or by email.
For example, if you get an email from YouTube saying that someone has commented on your video and you click the reply button, it will take you to the video page, but instead of the comment being at whatever place it was originally at in the comments it will be at the top as the first comment so you can access the comment or reply to it, etc.
Or when you receive a notification from YouTube, that tells you of a new comment on your video. When you click on it, YouTube will send you to a different URL than the one you are normally sent to when you just click on the video.
YouTube will mark the comment as a ‘Highlighted Comment’. This URL is the same as the original one, but it contains some extra characters on the end which highlights a certain comment, allowing you to easily answer it!
3. Comment Sharing
This is useful when you want to share a particular comment to someone. For example, when you read the comments of a video, you may find a comment to be very funny or interesting. If you want to share that comment with a friend of yours, just click next to the comment where it says how many minutes or hours before the comment was posted and then YouTube automatically generates a link for that comment. It’s the same link as the video, but just some letters are added.
The comment that is highlighted will stay on top of the video for whoever clicks the link you sent them. To share a comment,
1. Click on the time of the comment. Now YouTube would reload and marks that comment as “HIGHLIGHTED COMMENT”. You can also notice that there are some changes in the URL.
2. Now copy the URL and send it to your friends to share the comment. That particular comment would show on the top as a highlighted comment to your friends.
4. Some Additional Info
Do you know that you can format your YouTube comments? That is, you can bold, italicize, or strikethrough the text. To achieve that, enclose your text with,
Asterisks * – To make the text bold.
Underscores _ – To italicize the text.
Hyphens – To strikethrough.
For example, see the screenshot below. I have formatted parts of my comment to appear bold, and I’ve added a strikethrough effect.
Now after I post my comment, my comment would look like this (refer screenshot below)
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I hope now you know what a highlighted comment means on YouTube. Start sharing interesting comments with your friends!
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