YouTube now refreshes like and view counts of videos in real-time

The number of times videos are viewed and liked on YouTube are two of the most important metrics for success on the platform. More views and likes on a video make the YouTube algorithm recommend that video to more users, and they also help users determine, at least to some extent, whether they should waste time on a video or move on to something else.

And now, YouTube is making it easier to notice how many times a video has been viewed and liked, at least when you're actively watching the video. The like and view counters are now refreshed in real-time on both the web version of YouTube and its Android app, as reported by Android Police.

The like and view counters play a small animation every time they are updated, and they are refreshed even when the video is paused. The counters are also updated in the background, so users will see the latest count every time they switch to a different browser tab or another app and then go back to the YouTube tab or app.

At this time, the feature only seems to be widely available for YouTube on the web, not the Android app, so you may not see it on your device until YouTube decides to increase the feature's reach. If you don't wish to see the like and view counts being refreshed in real-time, you're out of luck as YouTube doesn't seem to offer any option to turn it off, not right now anyway.

Image credits: PhoneArena

Abhijeet Mishra - Editor-in-Chief

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First Samsung device: SGH-D500

Abhijeet's writing career started with guides for custom firmware for Samsung devices (including the original Galaxy S), and he moved to SamMobile in mid-2013 and worked up the ranks to Editor-in-chief. In addition to phones and mobile devices, his interests include gaming on both PC and console, PC hardware, and spending countless hours on YouTube watching videos on tech, movies, games, politics, and internet dramas.

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