What Does Highlighted Comment Mean on YouTube
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Written by Ivana Kotorchevikj Streaming / YouTube
If you are using YouTube frequently, you may have seen a comment labeled as a “Highlighted comment”.
Recently YouTube introduced a new feature called “Highlighted comment” and many people were wondering what it means and the purpose behind it.
If you haven’t noticed it, it’s a label in light gray above the commenter’s name reading Highlighted comment. Additionally, you might also come across highlighted commented replies labeled as a 'Highlighted reply'.
Keep on reading to find out what YouTube’s recent updates to comments means.
What does a Highlighted Comment mean exactly?
Highlighted comments are part of YouTube’s efforts to improve its commenting, including reminding users to be respectful.
First of all, let’s discuss some common misunderstandings about the feature. Highlighted comments are not a sign of approval by the video creators, nor are they the most voted comments by viewers.
But the main purpose why YouTube started highlighting comments is to simplify and streamline the browsing experience.
You can also highlight replies to comments. If you are a viewer and you have highlighted a comment, you will get a notification saying “Highlighted Reply” when someone responds to that comment.
The real benefit of highlighted comments is for video creators. If you are a video creator and you highlight a comment, the highlighted comment is moved above the pinned comments, which makes it easier to be found and reply to.
Also, when a comment is highlighted, YouTube creates a special URL for it. This way, highlighted comments serve almost as bookmarks. Let’s take, for example, the two URLs in the video below (open the YouTube videos in a separate tab to notice the changes in the URL):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxP48gdo374
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxP48gdo374&lc=UgwXtoxdTUwzNI6-u594AaABAg
Although the two URLs are obviously different, they take you to the same video. Only the second one has some additional parameters that identify one of the comments you highlighted below in the video. You’ll notice that the URL contains ‘lc’, which most likely stands for ‘linked comment’, and a combination of other letters and numbers unique to the video with a highlighted comment.
When a YouTube page URL has these parameters, it loads the specific comment to the top of the comments list with the Highlighted comment label.
If the highlighted comment is a reply, YouTube will move its parent comment to the top, also showing the reply below it.
Bonus: What Does the Blue Dot Mean on YouTube?
How to highlight a comment on YouTube?
You can highlight comments in any video, no matter if you are just a viewer or video creator. To do it, click on the timestamp next to the user’s name on YouTube, which will make it appear at the top of the other comments.
When you do that, the video will reload, and the person who created that comment will get a notification that says "Highlighted Reply".
How to use Highlighted comments?
As we’ve seen, Highlighted comments are less exciting than they sound. They are more like "bookmarked" than "featured”. Thus, you can use them to bookmark and identify specific comments that you want to reply to later.
The bottom line is that Highlighted comments are an automated YouTube feature that makes your navigation experience on the platform easier.
They can be helpful to both users and creators when they want to interact with comments, especially on videos with hundreds or thousands of comments, which would be nearly impossible to navigate.
Now that you know what Highlighted comments are, check out how to tag other users in comments on YouTube.
