YouTube Shorts copies TikTok with clean screen and double speed

Published on June 26, 2026 | Translated from Spanish

YouTube updated its short-form video platform with features reminiscent of TikTok. It includes a clean screen mode that hides icons and text, a heart button to indicate you like a video, and the option to play at double speed by swiping down. It also removed the dislike button. This offers a smoother and more personalized experience for users.

smartphone screen showing YouTube Shorts interface transformation, finger swiping down to activate double speed playback, clean mode hiding all icons and text, heart button appearing next to video while thumbs-down button disappears, smooth user interface transition, photorealistic product visualization, glowing UI elements, subtle motion blur during gesture, reflective glass screen, dark mode background, ultra-detailed app icons fading out, technical illustration style, cinematic macro shot of mobile device, realistic lighting on screen surface

Technical changes in the YouTube Shorts interface 🛠️

The update modifies the interface rendering layer. When activating clean mode, interaction overlays are hidden via a toggle in the player. The heart button replaces the thumbs-up, aligning the engagement metric with TikTok. Double-speed playback is activated with a vertical swipe gesture, altering the native player's playback rate. The removal of the dislike button simplifies the negative feedback signal.

Goodbye to the dislike button, hello to peace of mind 😌

YouTube removed the dislike button from Shorts, perhaps because watching a bad video and not being able to complain was too stressful for the algorithm. Now you can only like, as if every 15-second choreography were a masterpiece. Clean mode is perfect for pretending you don't see your boss appear in the feed while you binge another cat video. Double speed to suffer less.