This heart icon sometimes appears on the iOS YouTube app and now it has been appearing on my PC YouTube app. It partially covers the lower right chat window. Why is it there and any way to get rid of it?
Are you saying you want to be…heartless?
Yeah, it doesn’t do anything except cover the chat window. If you click on it, a menu of 5 icons open up in a vertical panel. When you click on one of the icons, the same icon briefly floats above the panel and disappears. It has no use except to take up space and obscure the chat window.
Googling a solution has come up empty, so I’m posting here in case anyone else has the same issue.
This must be new because I recently noticed it and was similarly peeved. Watching this thread with interest.
Apparently it’s a recent addition rolled out to allow viewers to send an instant emoji (anonymously) to something they like that’s going on in the livestream. You can send a heart or a “100” or whatever. I guess it’s the Youtube equivalent of “F in the chat”.
This is what the kids are doing with their time these days.
What does “F in the chat” mean?
On Twitch, it started from when CoD streamers would get killed in the game, they would say “can I get an F in the chat” to respect for the dead character. It was done with tongue in cheek, I imagine.
Nowadays, it’s more used just as a general sign of agreement/thumbs up, I think.
You know, I’m an over-50 year old man. Why in the hell do i know this shit?
Thanks for the explanation, guess I’ll just have to live with this stupid heart icon invading my chat window.
Can you block it as an element with your ad blocker? Or, you know, just hide chat like a sane person.
I don’t see that heart icon in the web browser. Must be specific to those apps.
It’s definitely in the browser too. Checked it out on Edge and Firefox, both have it.
If you have Ublock Origin, though, adding these lines to your filters should disappear it. Worked for me on Edge anyway…haven’t tried it yet on FF.
youtube.com##yt-reaction-control-panel-view-model
youtube.com##yt-reaction-control-panel-overlay-view-model
I tried charmtrap’s UO filter additions in FF, did not work for me. What did work, was right-clicking, mousing over Ublock Origin then selecting “Block Element in Frame…” When you mouseover the heart icon, make sure you’re selecting the entire pop-up window (the one you see if you were trying to select the emojis in chat) then click it and it’s gone. Hope that helps!
Thank you! This right here is why I refuse to go without ublock. Idk about y’all but I’ve seen the most ridiculous design decisions lately, from apps to websites. Reminds me of how you can install Google’s find my phone on a Samsung and it will remove location permissions automatically if the app isn’t used. Who thought that was a good default setting on an app that only needs to locate your phone when it’s lost? It’s not just bad design, the stuff flat out makes no sense when it defeats its own functionality. Just like this stupid af heart icon, not that I care, but it’s blocking part of the chat, which is an integral part of live streams. Wtf… Anyway, made this account to say thanks for the answer because this crap gets infuriating sometimes.
Welcome to the community!
You can make the heart emoji icon translucent but not completely gone from what I discovered. Right click on the emoji and inspect and hide element. It’s frustrating for moderators who can’t hide comments right away.
Nobody has yet posted a way to eliminate the heart emoji. It sits atop the scroll bar, impeding any attempt to scroll back in the chat. The chat can be popped out of the window using the 3-dots menu.
Expanding the chat window can then allow access to some of the controls that were blocked by the
silly heart icon. Its still there, just slightly less annoying.
this is the culprit: https://www.youtube.com/s/gaming/emoji/7ff574f2/emoji_u1f389.svg
adblock by Opera doesn’t do anything.
When I see the little heart showing up in the chat, I stop listening to the you tuber. That’s it! Life is simple!
It’s so simple a bot could do it!