You might have spotted a YouTube comment labeled “Highlighted comment.” What does this highlighted comment mean? As it turns out, this feature is misunderstood and probably not what you might think it is.
What Does a Highlighted Comment Look Like?
In the comments section below a YouTube video, you can spot a comment labeled as a “highlighted comment.” This label appears in light gray, just above the commenter’s name.
YouTube also highlights comment replies with slightly different but predictable wording. Highlighted reply.
YouTube has continued to improve its commenting, including reminding YouTube users to be respectful. Highlighted comments are another small improvement.
What Does a Highlighted Comment Mean?
Before I tell you what it means, it’s best to dismiss some of the most common misunderstandings. First, highlighted comments are not a show of approval by the video creator and are also not voted on by other users.
Highlighted comments could be considered a little more than a bookmarking feature.
If you know how to read a URL, you might be able to recognize that there is an extra parameter in the URL containing a highlighted comment. The URL’s name is lc, possibly for “linked comment.” This value uniquely identifies one of the comments below the video, which is the highlighted comment.
When a YouTube page includes a parameter like this, it pulls up that specific comment to the top of the comments. While also adding the highlighted comment label. If the comment is a reply, YouTube will elevate the parent comment to the top, accompanied by the below reply.
How might you come across highlighted comments?
If you host a video on YouTube, you can receive notifications when a user posts a comment on the video. The notifications will contain a highlighted comment link; if you click this link to view the comment in context, the page will highlight it’s easy to spot.
How to Highlight a Comment on YouTube?
Note: You can’t highlight a comment on YouTube. But you can generate a URL so that when someone visits the link, they will see a highlighted comment. You could send such a URL to someone directly. Or, you could post it on your social media. If you have a website, you could add a link to it so anyone who clicks on it will be able to spot a highlighted YouTube comment.
To create a link with a highlighted comment, follow these steps:
- First, visit a video on YouTube with comments.
- Scroll below the video to view comments, then select the one you wish to highlight.
- Next, click the time (e.g., three days ago); this will be next to the commenter’s username.
- The page will refresh. However, this time, with a different URL, it will include the lc parameter.
- Select the new URL in your browser’s address bar, then copy it.
- You can use the paste option to share the URL in a WhatsApp chat, a new email, or anywhere else you wish to use it.
To sum it up, for YouTube comments, the meaning of “highlighted” is related to “bookmarked” than “featured.” The use of a highlighted comment is to identify a particular comment. They can be useful to bookmark, especially if you wish to follow up on a comment later.
If you liked this article (or if it helped), leave a comment below or share it with friends so they can also know what a highlighted comment means on YouTube.
