Dataset

Killed by YouTube

A record of the features YouTube has retired, replaced, restricted, or quietly degraded over the years. Each entry is dated and sourced. Kept as a neutral reference — corrections welcome.

12 features·2006–2026·last updated

Audience
Status
Window

Showing 12 of 12

Dislike button on Shorts

Killed
2020 ~6 years Viewer

YouTube removed the thumbs-down button from the Shorts player, ending viewers' ability to dislike short-form videos directly.

No direct successor

Scoped to Shorts — long-form videos and live streams keep the dislike button. YouTube points viewers to the 'Not Interested' and 'Don't recommend this channel' controls instead, and replaced the thumbs-up with a heart. Historical Shorts dislike data stays visible in YouTube Studio but stopped updating at the end of June 2026.

Sources
Introduced
Retired

Stories

Replaced
Nov 2018 ~5 years Creator

Stories were ephemeral, vertical posts that disappeared after seven days, modeled on Snapchat and Instagram Stories.

Replaced by Shorts and Community posts

Sources
Introduced
Retired

YouTube Go

Replaced
2016 ~6 years Viewer

YouTube Go was a data-conscious lite app that let users preview videos, control data use, and download for offline viewing on constrained devices and connections.

Replaced by Main YouTube app (optimized for entry-level devices)

Sources
Introduced
Retired

Public dislike count

Changed
2010 ~11 years Viewer

The publicly visible dislike tally was hidden across the platform, removing a long-standing at-a-glance signal of a video's reception.

Replaced by Dislike button retained; count made private

Sources
Introduced
Retired

Rewind

Killed
Dec 2010 ~11 years Viewer

Rewind was YouTube's annual studio-produced montage of the year's biggest creators, trends, memes, and music.

Replaced by Creator-made year-end recaps and YouTube trend lists (no first-party successor video)

Sources
Introduced
Retired

Creator Studio Classic

Replaced
Unknown — Creator

Creator Studio Classic was YouTube's original creator dashboard; YouTube Studio became the default in 2019 and Classic was rolled off in stages, reaching all channels by the end of April 2020.

Replaced by YouTube Studio

Retirement was gradual: Studio Beta default Aug 2019; Classic removed for 1% of channels Jan 2020, 10% Feb 2020, all channels by end of April 2020.

Sources
Retired

YouTube Gaming (standalone app)

Replaced
Aug 2015 ~4 years Viewer

YouTube Gaming was a standalone app and site built to rival Twitch, later folded into a gaming category within the main YouTube app.

Replaced by Gaming destination inside the main YouTube app (youtube.com/gaming)

Sources
Introduced
Retired

Annotations

Replaced
2008 ~11 years Viewer

Annotations were clickable text boxes and overlays layered on top of videos, used for links, corrections, and branching interactive content.

Replaced by Cards and End Screens (mobile-friendly)

Sources
Introduced
Retired

Data API v2 (GData)

Replaced
Unknown — Developer

The Data API v2 was the GData-based interface third-party developers used to query and manage YouTube content before it was shut down in favor of v3.

Replaced by YouTube Data API v3

Deprecation announced March 4, 2014; most v2 endpoints began returning 410 Gone around the April 20, 2015 shutdown, with comments/captions/flagging kept on a grace period into mid-2015.

Sources
Retired

Video Responses

Killed
May 2006 ~7 years Viewer

Video Responses let users reply to a video with another video that appeared above the comment section; YouTube cited a 0.0004% click-through rate when retiring it, pointing users to video links in comments instead.

No direct successor

Sources
Introduced
Retired

No features match these filters.

Questions & answers

Has YouTube discontinued many features over the years?

Yes. YouTube has retired, replaced, restricted, or degraded a long list of viewer, creator, and developer features — among them video responses (2013), annotations (2019), Stories (2023), and viewer-created Clips (2026). This page keeps a dated, sourced record of them.

What happened to YouTube Clips?

YouTube retired viewer-created Clips in April 2026 and replaced them with a share-at-timestamp option that sets only a start point — no end time and no dedicated clip player. The ability to make clips now sits with creators inside YouTube Studio.

Why did YouTube remove annotations?

YouTube disabled the annotations editor in 2017 and removed all existing annotations in January 2019, largely because they did not work on mobile. Cards and end screens took their place.

What replaced YouTube Stories?

YouTube shut down Stories in June 2023 and directed creators to Shorts and Community posts instead.

Does YouTube still have a dislike count?

On regular videos the dislike button still works, but YouTube made the public count private in November 2021. On Shorts the dislike button was removed entirely in June 2026. Creators can still see their own dislike numbers in YouTube Studio.

What happened to community captions on YouTube?

YouTube ended Community Contributions — the feature that let viewers add captions, subtitles, and translations to other people’s videos — in September 2020, citing spam and low usage. No direct replacement was offered, which drew criticism from Deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers.