YouTubers can now pause video comments without disabling them

YouTube has introduced a new moderation tool for creators that allows them to pause comments, preventing any new comments from being added to videos while preserving those that have already been posted. In a blog post published on Thursday, YouTube said the feature enables creators to “take a break from managing comments if they become overwhelming” and provides some flexibility over how comments are managed.

Before this update, YouTube creators only had two options for moderating what would otherwise be a complete commenting free-for-all: either hold comments for manual review before publishing them, or completely disable all comments on a video. YouTube says the Pause feature is rolling out now — we’ve asked the company for clarification on global availability and will update this story if we hear back.

As part of its announcement, YouTube also renamed some of its existing moderation settings for easier comprehension. This means instead of being presented with options to “Hold potentially inappropriate comments for review” and toggle to “Increase strictness” — which is a lot to cram into any options menu — users will instead be given a simple choice between On, Pause, or Off. Enabling comments also toggles some optional moderation levels to choose from: None (completely unmoderated), Basic (which holds “potentially inappropriate” comments for review), Strict (which holds a broader range of comments for review), and Hold All.

You can find the new pause option in the video-level comment settings on the watch page within the YouTube app, or in YouTube Studio on both mobile and desktop.