There are many reasons to avoid scrolling through the comments section in one YouTube video. Now you have another reason to avoid because hyperlinked comments appear more widely on mobile.

Already in 2023 it was revealed on a YouTube Creator Insider announcement that the platform would begin running a limited experiment that would allow users to initiate a search on certain topics directly from the comments section. Specifically, a word in a comment can be hyperlinked if related information or topics are available. Each word selected to be hyperlinked would appear in blue with a magnifying glass next to it. Clicking on the hyperlink takes the user to a results page as their video continued to play in the mini player.

YouTube said in the announcement that it aims to “reduce friction” when users try to learn more about a topic. As a commenter, you have no power to choose which word is hyperlinked or to remove a hyperlink. However, the company said creators can remove those hyperlinks from their video comments if they want.

First discovered by 9to5Googleit appears that the limited experiment has now been extended to more users on mobile. You can see an example in the left screenshot above where Fallout 76 has been hyperlinked. Clicking on that hyperlink will take you to the results page you see in the right screenshot above.

Currently, it is unclear what criteria a word must meet to be hyperlinked. The implementation seems random, as the feature only appears in some comment sections and not others. However, it appears that the experiment is only visible on mobile.

In a more welcome change, we recently discovered, through a APK teardownthat YouTube is working on making the bedtime reminder feature easier to find. A change that may help some from staying up too late watching videos.