You might accept seen a comment on YouTube labeled as a "Highlighted annotate". What does a highlighted annotate mean, and why does it happen? Information technology turns out that this feature is very misunderstood, and information technology's probably not at all what you might think.

Here's what you lot should know about YouTube's highlighted comments feature.

First, permit'southward clarify what we're talking about. In the comments section below a YouTube video, you lot may meet a comment labeled equally Highlighted comment. The characterization appears in light gray, above the commenter'southward name.

YouTube highlighted comment

YouTube can also highlight comment replies, with slightly different diction: Highlighted reply.

YouTube has been improving its commenting, including reminding YouTube users to be respectful. Highlighted comments are nevertheless some other pocket-sized improvement.

This is a misunderstood feature, and it'southward a lot less heady than it sounds! Information technology's best to begin by dismissing some of the nigh common misunderstandings. Highlighted comments are not a show of blessing by the video creator, nor are they voted on by other users.

Highlighted comments are little more than than a bookmarking feature. Take a look at two URLs:

  • youtube.com/watch?five=kf1hv40kTUY
  • youtube.com/watch?5=kf1hv40kTUY&lc=Ugx4KSYkdZbmCwpOdpt4AaABAg

Although they look dissimilar, both URLs bear witness the same video. But one displays a highlighted comment and one doesn't. What'southward going on?

If you know how to read a URL, you lot might recognize there'southward an extra parameter in the second example. Its name is lc, possibly standing for "linked annotate". Its value uniquely identifies one of the comments below the video—that'south the highlighted comment.

When a YouTube page includes such a parameter, information technology pulls upward that specific comment to the acme of the comments listing. Information technology too adds the Highlighted comment label. If the comment is a reply, YouTube volition elevate its parent annotate to the summit, with the reply shown beneath it.

If you host a video on YouTube, you can receive notifications when a user posts a comment on it. These notifications volition incorporate a highlighted comment link. Click this link to view the comment in context; the folio volition clearly highlight it so that you can spot it easily.

Carry in heed that you lot cannot actually highlight a comment on YouTube. What you can practice is generate a URL so that, when someone visits it, they'll run across a highlighted comment. You lot can send such a URL to someone directly or mail it on social media. If you take a website, you can add a link to it so anyone who clicks on information technology will see a highlighted YouTube annotate.

To create a link with a highlighted comment:

  1. Go to a video on YouTube with comments.
  2. Whorl beneath the video to view comments and pick the i you desire to highlight.
  3. Click the fourth dimension (e.m. 3 days agone) side by side to the commenter's username.
  4. The page volition refresh, but with a dissimilar URL. This time, it will include the lc parameter.
  5. Select the new URL in your browser's address bar and re-create it.

You tin now paste the new URL into a WhatsApp chat, a new email, or anywhere else you might desire to use it.

For YouTube comments, the meaning of "highlighted" is closer to "bookmarked" than "featured". You lot tin use a highlighted comment to identify a specific comment. They can be useful to bookmark, especially if you lot want to follow up on a annotate subsequently on.

You might also want to draw someone else'south attending to a annotate, and sending them a URL is an excellent way of doing so.