YouTube has officially rolled out profile cards, an information-giving feature it began testing back in September.
Available now on YouTube’s Android app and slated to come to browser and iOS later, profile cards let users click on a comment to see the commenter’s name, profile photo, number of subscribers, and all the comments they’ve left on a particular channel within the last 12 months.
You can see profile cards in action in this GIF from TechCrunch:
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YouTube hopes the feature will help users “explore comments, build connections with others, and contribute to a more welcoming YouTube environment overall,” it told TechCrunch. That echoes earlier statements from Tom Leung, YouTube’s director of product management, who said in September that YouTube wants profile cards to “help creators recognize some of their best commenters” but also aid them in finding and blocking users who repeatedly leave abusive comments.
As we mentioned in September, profile cards don’t show a user’s entire comment history, just the history for the channel on which they’ve commented. So, if you clicked on a comment below a Good Mythical Morning installment, you wouldn’t see comments that user may have left on a Smosh or Viva La Dirt League video–just Good Mythical Morning.
Profile cards also contain instant Subscribe buttons, and link directly to commenters’ channels.
The rollout comes after YouTube received largely positive feedback for its test, per TechCrunch. Some users did request that YouTube provide an opt-out for the feature, saying they were concerned about privacy and that their comments would be taken out of context. (When users are browsing a profile card, they can click on an individual comment to be taken to the full comment thread.) YouTube does not appear to have provided an opt-out.
While profile cards aren’t yet on YouTube’s iOS app, iOS did get a separate new feature today: subscription feed filters, which let users sort unwatched videos from the creators they’re subscribed to.
