YouTube Is Getting Rid Of Video Annotations NEW!
YouTube's annotations are a powerful tool for engaging viewers, but they can quickly spiral out of control and become more of a distraction than an interaction. Thankfully, you have ways to combat incessant speech bubbles, from eradicating them one by one to erasing their existence altogether.
YouTube is getting rid of video annotations
The intermediate approach is to turn off all annotations for the video currently playing. Click the gear icon in the menu bar along the bottom edge of the video player. A settings panel will pop up with a toggle switch to turn off annotations. Note: this switch will also turn off YouTube's new interactive cards.
The third approach is the nuclear option. If you don't want to see annotations (or cards) for any video whatsoever, you can disable all interactive elements by heading to settings, clicking on Playback from the Account Settings panel on the left, and then unchecking the box for "Show annotations, channel promotions and interactive cards on videos."
They're pretty outdated - in fact, YouTube discontinued its annotations editor option back in May 2017, which meant that users could no longer add them, only delete them. Now, it's putting them to rest for good.
Why? Because little annotations that prompt viewers to "Subscribe" or "Follow us" or "Click here to learn more" encourage them to actually engage and interact with your content -- and maybe even head back to your website.
Annotations are basically text boxes that can be overlaid on YouTube videos. Some videos use annotations to make corrections to the content or convey easter eggs. An example of an annotation on a video:
It would be nice if there were a way to get the annotations in a format where they could be displayed as they were originally on the video, with the original positioning and timing, but I'd be fine with just getting the annotation text in XML or some other plain text format. I mainly just want to save a copy of the annotation text from some video game guide videos where there is a lot of text contained in the annotations.
You can use _invideo?features=1&legacy=1&video_id=[VIDEO-ID-HERE] to retrieve the annotations in an XML format. Source: -copy-annotations/. Legacy annotations were removed from this API on January 15, 2019 between 15:00 and 15:10 UTC.
An archive was created containing the annotations from 1.4 billion videos and accessible via the following API (video-id). (Note: the API endpoint may be changed in the future. Also, this archive is still accepting data contributions if you have saved annotation data, see u/omarroth for details.)
A browser extension to redisplay the annotations on the videos after YouTube removed them is now in progress at In addition, a web player with annotation support built in is also now in development, available at
As of now, there's no existing Youtube API that will backup any Youtube Annotations. It is clear from the documentation that annotations will be removed permanently. Annotations didn't work with mobile and in response to creators' call for annotations that would, YouTube created Cards instead. YouTube cards are a great way to engage audience and been mobile-friendly makes it a must more all the video creator.
What are YouTube annotations? How to add and remove annotations on YouTube? This post answers these questions one by one. By the way, if you want to learn YouTube more, you can visit MiniTool uTube Downloader.
How to add annotations on YouTube? That can be completed through the annotations editor, but it was discontinued back in 2017. The reason is that YouTube annotations were outdated and out of place.
YouTube Cards and Annotations are very useful if you want to encourage your viewrs to take an action, like Subscribe, go to another video or associated website, etc. Today, we're going to show you the differences between cards and annotations, and how to add them in YouTube videos.
The main difference between annotation and cards is their outlook. Cards are more graphical whereas annotations are text based. The cards slide in once you click the small "i" button on the video where as the annotation is there based on the timings set by the user. Moreover the main differences between the two are:
2. You cannot use Cards just to insert notes into your videos, though, and you cannot adjust their size like you can with annotations. So, if you do need a link to be large and extremely noticeable, annotations might still be your best option. Cards and annotations can even be used in combination sometimes.
One form this takes is small Note annotations in the bottom corners of the screen, one linking to your previous video and one to the next. Sometimes your viewers might not necessarily get the most enjoyment out of your videos by watching them in order, though. Sometimes you want to link viewers to the videos that are most related to the one they just watched.
The best outros also include a subscribe button, which can be created using annotations. These annotations work best when combined with a verbal call to action. Make sure your outro lasts long enough for people to make the decision to subscribe or click another video.
No matter what kind of annotations you are using, you should never use more than two of them at a time anywhere except for your outro. You should also never place annotations at the very top of your screen, or in the middle at the bottom. If your video is embedding on a separate website then the player will cover annotations at the top of the screen, and ads might cover annotations placed in the bottom-middle of the screen. Keep in mind when using annotations that they will not be visible to users watching your videos on mobile devices. If mobile traffic is very important to you then consider using YouTube Cards.
Back in March 2017, YouTube announced that it would be retiring annotations, those boxes that pop up during a video with links and additional information. It discontinued the annotations editor in May of last year and soon all existing annotations will be going away as well. The company added an update to the help page announcing the end of its annotations editor, saying, "We will stop showing existing annotations to viewers starting January 15, 2019. All existing annotations will be removed."
Annotations didn't work with mobile and in response to creators' call for annotations that would, YouTube created Cards instead. It also introduced End Screens in 2016, and as those two features became more popular, YouTube said annotation use decreased by more than 70 percent. The company says that compared to annotations, Cards and End Screens are more engaging and easier to create, along with being functional on mobile.
Adding annotations to YouTube videos helps your viewers engage with the content and follow it easily and keeps their attention focused for a longer period of time. Ranging from shapes and photos (decorative, diagrams, graphs) and simple text (further details, lists, main ideas) with or without transitions, to animated opening titles and call to action elements, annotations can help give your video an informative and aesthetic boost.
Annotations are a great way to display instructions and lists throughout your video. You can create YouTube annotations for any videos to make it easier for the viewers to remain focused and entertained. Seeing the main ideas and steps on the screen will also help them during their attempts to follow along.
Our video editor provides simple text or motion titles to add as annotations for your YouTube videos. Text can play many roles in a well-made video, for example: it helps establish the main ideas as well as pointing out details you might not have been able to originally include when recording.
With some YouTube creators overdoing annotations and placing them in spots on the video where you simply can't close them yourself, it can get pretty annoying. Luckily, disabling YouTube annotations is just a few clicks away for all YouTube users.
If you feel that some channels do share relevant and interesting information in annotations, you can just disable annotations case-by-case as you watch videos. If you're watching one and the annotations are just too much to take, click on the settings icon for that video and you can immediately toggle them off.
By 2014, filmmakers were using annotations to make interactive films with bigger production values and more attention to storytelling and screenwriting, winning nominations and awards for their innovation.
Constantly strumming guitar chords, The YouTube Electric Guitar turns the players into an instrument. With changes to the embed, the chord annotations are now covered by the interface. Try the Theater Mode for best results.
TVTropes documents the history of The Annotated Series, a channel devoted itself to heckling videogame-related animated series, uploading episodes with open annotations for the community to contribute. Several of their accounts were shut down for copyright strikes, but many are preserved with annotations baked into the videos for posterity, and others available on their new channel.
In the launch announcement, YouTube pointed to this skydiving video as an example of how annotations could be used to deepen videos, easily giving additional commentary without editing the video itself.
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By far, the most-viewed annotations ever have to be the ending of nearly every Movieclips video, which lets you select other scenes from the same movie, clips from movies by the same cast and crew, and related clips by genre, mood, or setting. With over 30,000 videos and 18B views, every annotation link in their pre-2017 videos will break in January. 350c69d7ab