YouTube is testing the ability for viewers to leave comments on videos, which are intended to provide “relevant, timely, and easy-to-understand context,” 9to5Google reports.

Compared to comments, notes are located higher up, between the video title and the channel name. This section is called “Viewers have added a comment” and is expanded by clicking on the bar.

youtube notes

This system can be used to “explain when a song is plagiarized or to indicate that a new version of the product being reviewed in the video is available.”

The annotations will not be shown to everyone, YouTube has developed an algorithm based on user ratings that will show the annotations to users.

Users will be able to rate comments as “helpful,” “partially helpful,” or “not helpful,” and why. For example, whether it refers to high-quality sources, and whether it is written clearly and neutrally.

The algorithm will work, as the company notes, “based on bridges.” If many people who have rated posts differently in the past now rate the same post as useful, the system is more likely to show this post below the video.

YouTube is inviting a “limited number of contributors” to test the system. They will be able to create anonymous notes. Owners of active channels that have no violations of the community rules can be invited to test. The invitation can be sent via email or in Creator Studio.

The notes will begin appearing on videos “in the coming weeks and months” for viewers in the United States if they are deemed useful to the general public.