Imagine you come across stellar content on a social media platform, and as you’re about to send it to your friend, you get a call. And because of shifting apps, you lose the post. Isn’t it frustrating? A big yes!

In this vast universe of constantly refreshing feeds and comment sections that populate at lightning speed, you may forever lose anything you don’t store, tag or pin.

Thankfully, YouTube has created an automatic feature that lets you find a comment or thread: the highlight tool.

Some people think the tool exists to point out featured content, and while this is a logical assumption, it’s a myth. Instead, the highlight tool reduces scrolling and makes it easy to find specific comments.

Here’s everything you need to know about what a highlighted comment means on YouTube and how to use this feature to see new video responses, bookmark them or send them to friends.

What does a highlighted comment look like?

First things first: how can you recognize a highlighted comment?

Highlighted comments bear a light-gray label over the commenter’s name. Another important detail is the difference between highlighted comments and replies and pinned comments. While many YouTube users think they’re the same, the two labels are easily distinguishable. Pinned video responses have a thumbtack icon next to them, whereas the other label says “Highlighted Comment.”

What does a highlighted comment mean on YouTube?

If you’ve ever commented on someone’s YouTube video or Shorts, you might have seen a highlighted comment label on top of your comment and wondered why your comment is highlighted on YouTube.

You typically see the highlight label when you click on a notification from the app about a comment or reply. Essentially, YouTube sends you a unique link that directs you to this specific video response. The platform automatically highlights it, so you don’t have to search for it, among other comments. Also, you’re the only user who can see this label.

YouTubers can also use the highlighting tool to bookmark particular comments on their or others’ videos. Only the person that adds the highlight label to the comment can see the label.

In case you want to bookmark a comment, just click the timestamp. The comment will rise to the top of the page, and only you can see it there. Other YouTube users watching the same video will see that comment in its original chronological place.

So is a highlighted comment on YouTube bad or good?

Highlighted comments are neither good nor bad (or even remarkable). Highlights don’t denote featured or creator-approved comments. In fact, this designation also doesn’t imply that other users like your video response. Highlighting is a neutral feature that makes searching for comments easier and more practical.

You can also use the feature to draw someone else’s attention to a video response, perhaps signaling that you approve of a comment or want to show it off. Although other users can’t view the highlighted comments on your page, they’ll see this label on a comment if you send them a URL directly to it – like if you manually send a user a notification, just like how the app automatically does.

How do you make a highlighted comment URL on YouTube?

You can highlight a comment to bookmark it by clicking on the timestamp. But if you want to show a specific comment to someone else, you’ll need to send them a URL. Here’s how.

1. Open YouTube, and find the video with the comment you’d like to send to a friend.
2. Locate the comment you wish to share.
3. Click on the comment’s timestamp, bookmarking the comment for yourself, and the video URL in your browser’s search bar reflects this change. The URL now contains the letters “lc” followed by an alphanumeric string.
4. Copy the URL from the search bar.
5. Send this URL to anyone else however you wish – via text, email, social media message, etc. This link will direct the person straight to the comment you highlighted.

Since highlights are unique URLs that direct users to a bookmarked comment, you can clear a highlight by setting the URL back to its original state. If you delete the URL’s section starting with “lc,” you’ll still see the same video and comments section but not the highlighted comment. You can apply this hack to any highlighted comment URL – whether you created it or the app generated it when sending you a notification.

So what’s a pinned comment?

Unlike a highlighted comment, a pinned one is special and implies that the video creator likes it or finds it important. A pinned response lives at the top of the comments section, so anyone watching the video sees this blurb before reading the rest below.

Here’s how to pin a standout comment to the top of your YouTube video’s page.

1. Open YouTube in your browser, and sign in if you haven’t already.
2. Find the comment you’d like to pin.
3. Click the three dots icon, followed by “Pin.” Remember, you can only have one pinned comment at a time, so if you already have one at the top of the page, this move will remove it.
4. Tap “Pin” to confirm your choice.

Note: You can follow these same steps to unpin a comment.

Become a better YouTuber with Linktree

Hungry for more knowledge about YouTube? There are many more features to discover and resources to tap into.

Head to The Linktree Blog, and learn how to see who subscribes to your YouTube channel, change your page’s name, and promote your videos to a broader audience. After all, your viral videos can get you more subscribers and money, and content creators can turn their passion into a lucrative side hustle.

You can also boost your success by driving traffic to your YouTube account with a bio link for the rest of your social media platforms. Claim your free Linktree URL, which branches out to your entire web presence, helping you cross-promote your killer content across your socials.