You know that feeling when you’re about to watch a YouTube video, and you want a quick sense of whether it’s worth your time but the dislike count is nowhere to be found? That used to bug me more than I expected.
I mean, the dislike button disappearing in November 2021 felt like losing a tiny, yet important piece of internet honesty. At first, I thought, “No big deal, I’ll just rely on comments or trust the creator.” But the reality?
Comments are often disabled or flooded with spam and hate. So, I went on a mission to find a way to see those dislike ratios again, and what I discovered felt like a game-changer.
Why I Needed the Return YouTube Dislike Browser Extension
Let’s be real the like-to-dislike ratio is one of the few quick metrics to gauge video quality. Sure, it’s not perfect, but it’s a helpful shortcut to avoid wasting time on low-quality or misleading content.
Without that, I found myself second-guessing videos, or worse, falling for scams and inaccurate how-tos. That’s when I stumbled upon the Return YouTube Dislike extension, a clever tool that restores dislike counts on YouTube videos.
I installed it on my Chrome browser, and honestly, it felt like a breath of fresh air. The extension taps into cached data and uses extrapolated user behavior to approximate dislike numbers.
It’s not a 100% accurate tally because YouTube disabled direct dislike access in its API, but the ratio it gives you is usually close enough to trust.
How Using the Extension Feels in Real Life
Opening a YouTube video with the Return YouTube Dislike extension is surprisingly smooth. The dislike number appears right beneath the video, just like it used to, which makes browsing feel familiar again.
It supports major browsers like Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Brave too, so no matter what you’re using, you’re covered.
One cool feature I found: on Android devices, there are versions of this tool integrated into apps like ReVanced or Tubular, and for jailbroken iPhones, options like Chariz and uYou+ bring dislike counts back.
Even for Safari users, there’s a userscript through Tampermonkey that helps restore this feature on desktop.
The only annoying issue I’ve noticed is that because the data relies on cached info and user contributions, dislike numbers may sometimes lag or be slightly off. According to the FAQ, it can take a few hours to a few days for updates to sync.
Still, it’s impressive how much community effort powers this extension, and it feels empowering to be part of that.
I Still Love How It Helps Me Avoid Low-Quality Content
Since using Return YouTube Dislike, I’ve saved so much time by quickly spotting videos with suspiciously high dislike ratios or clear brigading.
YouTube disabled dislikes partly because of brigading and mass dislike campaigns that unfairly targeted creators, but that also means we lost a critical metric to gauge content quality objectively.
Now, I use dislikes as one part of my toolkit to decide if a video is worth my attention. The extension author and users like LinusTechTips have validated that the ratio is mostly accurate, which reassures me that I’m not relying on guesswork.
What You Should Know Before Trying It
- The dislike count isn’t the official number since it’s based on cached and extrapolated data.
- It’s a community-powered tool, so contributing data helps improve accuracy.
- Works on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera, Brave, Android (via ReVanced/NewPipe), and jailbroken iPhones.
- Safari desktop users can use a Tamper monkey user script to enable dislikes.
- Updates to dislike tallies might take a while depending on community activity.
Final Thoughts: Why This Tool Feels More Honest
I love the feeling of regaining some control over my YouTube experience. It’s frustrating that YouTube disabled dislikes to protect creators from targeted attacks, but in doing so, they made it harder to assess video quality quickly.
Return YouTube Dislike is not perfect, but it’s a clever workaround a tool built by the online community, for the community.
If you’re tech-savvy and tired of guessing which videos are worth your time, I highly recommend giving this extension a try.
It’s a reminder that even small features like a dislike count matter when it comes to trust and transparency online.
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