Changelog
YouTube Comments Off: Chrome Extension · Current version: 1.3.0
Where things stand: version 1.3.0 is current. It adds a second switch to the popup, one that decides whether the like counter goes or stays, and it makes the Shorts rail follow the same rule as the video page. It leaves every other switch alone. 1.2.0 added the toolbar popup, the per-channel and per-video allowlist, and a badge that tells you at a glance whether comments are hidden on the tab you are looking at. Everything before that was the original install-and-forget build.
A second switch, for the likes
Some videos you want to know the room temperature on before you press play, some you do not. 1.3.0 gives the like counter a switch of its own, without touching the comments.
- "Block likes", next to "Block comments" in the popup. On, the like and dislike counts go, exactly as they went before. Off, they stay where they are. It is on by default, so a fresh install behaves like 1.2.0 and nothing changes until you ask for it.
- The like icon on Shorts goes too. Until now the extension hid the comment icon in the Shorts rail but left the like icon alone, which meant the two screens behaved differently. From 1.3.0 the Shorts rail follows the same switch as the video page.
- The two switches never fight each other. The like counter has its own classes in the stylesheet, and the comment gates, the channel exceptions and the video exceptions read nothing of them. Flip one, the other stays exactly as it was.
- Turn the extension off and YouTube is untouched. With the extension off, or on a channel you have allowed, the counter is visible the way it was before the extension was installed.
- Same privacy story. One more boolean in Chrome's own sync storage. Still no network requests, no analytics, no data leaving your browser.
The popup, and the one exception worth having
Blocking everything is the right default, but some channels earn their comments. 1.2.0 makes those exceptions possible without weakening anything else.
- Toolbar popup. One master switch, plus a badge that reads OFF when comments are visible on the current tab.
- "Except this channel" and "Except this video". Flipping either one lifts the block for exactly that channel or video. The exception is stored in your browser's own sync storage; every other channel stays blocked.
- Live chat is now hidden on streams and premieres, alongside the comments section and the like/dislike counts.
- Non-English Shorts. The Shorts comment button is now recognised in fifteen languages, not just English.
- The popup explains itself. If it cannot read the page, typically because the open tab is still running an older copy of the extension, it says so and tells you to refresh, instead of hiding the options silently. It also waits for slow pages rather than leaving the channel switch dead.
- Ko-fi button. Optional support, in the popup footer. The widget's code is bundled inside the extension, so rendering it fetches nothing from a third party.
Maintenance release
Published to the Chrome Web Store: the last of the 1.0.x line, with selectors refreshed for YouTube's October markup. No behaviour change.
First public release
The install-and-forget build.
- A stylesheet gated behind a single class, plus one MutationObserver that follows YouTube's single-page navigation.
- Hides the comments section and the like/dislike counts on videos, Shorts and channel pages.
- Open source, no permissions beyond YouTube, no network requests of any kind.
How updates work
Releases land when YouTube changes something that needs fixing, or when an exception proves useful in practice. If comments survive an update somewhere they should not, that is a bug: send it to support@dariocositore.com and it gets fixed.
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