Pinned and Highlighted Comments on YouTube: Tips and Benefits

Not everyone understands the difference between pinned and highlighted comments on YouTube, but as a video creator, it’s vital to know the platform inside and out. These features help you promote helpful comments, handle notifications, and manage your YouTube channel like a pro.

Read on to learn what pinned and highlighted comments are and how to get the most out of them.

What’s a Highlighted Comment on YouTube?

A highlighted comment is a message that YouTube marks to make it easier to find. When you click a notification (via email or alert) about a new comment or reply, YouTube brings you to the video and scrolls you down to the relevant one. 

The platform adds a tag reading “Highlighted comment” to help the text stand out, and the tag disappears once you’ve seen it. It isn’t something the uploader does — YouTube’s system flags these comments automatically.

This feature helps video creators spot recent feedback and lets viewers track down responses to their own input. It’s a handy way to keep up with conversations and stay involved.

YouTube Pinned Comments: Meaning and Use

Pinned comments are permanently fixed at the top of the comments section in a YouTube video, making them easily visible. Video creators manually choose which viewer comments to pin, drawing attention to feedback and insights or showcasing inside jokes and humor. They’re an excellent way to interact with your audience and encourage engagement.

Creators can also pin their own comments to share additional details about the video or drive traffic to other sites and channels. While you can place this info in the video description, a pinned comment is more visible to most viewers, so it’s a good idea to do both. 

You can pin comments on long videos and YouTube Shorts. However, “Made for Kids” videos and channels with strikes or warnings don’t have access to this feature. The platform also only lets you pin one at a time, so you’ll need to unpin a current message to showcase another.

3 Benefits of Pinning Comments on YouTube

Using pinned comments is a small way to make a big impact on your YouTube channel. Here are the benefits of this feature.

1. Increased Engagement

Pinning an interesting comment is a great way to spur conversations, whether it’s your own open-ended question or a fun viewer message. It grabs people’s attention, gets them talking, and encourages interaction.

Try linking to a YouTube clip in a pinned comment to boost engagement and generate even more excitement about your content. These snippets of longer videos help you highlight notable moments and allow viewers to jump straight into them.

2. Enhanced Community Building

Interacting with your community is the best way to promote a thriving YouTube channel. Pin insightful questions and standout opinions to give a nod to your viewers. This promotes a genuine, people-centric image and shows commenters you pay attention to their messages.

To encourage your audience to contribute more messages, let them know you’re planning to pin their favorite. A simple “I’ll pin the top comment, so go down and give me your thoughts” is usually enough to get people talking.

3. Better Content Moderation

Pinning comments pushes useful conversations to the top of the comment section and stops negative messages from taking center stage. While you can’t completely prevent spammy comments, you can showcase helpful messages instead, whether yours or your viewers. This simple action helps promote your channel as a positive place, ensuring iffy comments aren’t the first thing people see.

How To Pin a Comment on YouTube in 3 Steps

Pinning is fast and easy — here’s how to do it.

1. Log in to YouTube and Open Your Video

First, log in to YouTube. The pinning process is nearly identical for the mobile app and web version, so use whichever device you prefer. 

Navigate to the desired video and scroll down to the comments. If you don’t have any messages to pin, make sure you have comments enabled.

2. Locate the Comment You Want

Find the comment you want to pin and click the three dots on the right-hand side. Select “Pin” from the drop-down menu and confirm. Remember that you can only have one pinned comment — if you already have one, this action will replace it.

Pinned comments are front and center, so choose something on brand. For example, a professional channel like TED only pins serious, informative comments. If you’re ever in doubt, pin one of your own comments — it ensures the content is appropriate and lets you link to merch sites or social media channels.

3. Check and Confirm the Pin

Take a moment to make sure your pin is at the top of the comment section. If so, it will have a small push pin icon next to the text “Pinned by [Channel name].” You might need to refresh the page to see the change.

You can change this at any time by clicking the three dots on it and selecting “Unpin,” or you can simply pin a different comment to replace it.

Elevate Your YouTube Channel With Captions

Pinned comments let you acknowledge your viewers, drive traffic to your other channels, and build a successful YouTube community. Enhance your content strategy further with Captions’ creative studio.

Our AI YouTube Video Maker edits and enhances your content in moments — no technical expertise required. Choose an editing style and watch the AI add seamless cuts and transitions. If you want to boost accessibility and reach a global audience, try the Video Caption Generator. Upload your content, choose a language, and add accurate subtitles to any content.

Polish your YouTube content faster and focus more on your audience with Captions.

FAQ

How Does a Comment Get Highlighted on YouTube?

Highlighted comments are an automatic response performed by YouTube’s system. When you receive a notification about new messages or replies, clicking this link takes you to the comment and tags it. This can apply to any comment, although only for that moment. Navigating away from the page will remove the highlight.

What’s the Difference Between Pinned and Highlighted Comments?

The video creator picks pinned comments by hand, typically because the notes showcase information or jokes. On the other hand, highlighted comments happen automatically when you click a notification link and don’t denote anything special — they simply help you find the comment you’re looking for.

What’s a Highlighted Reply on YouTube?

A highlighted reply is another name for a highlighted comment, and while they both refer to automatically labeled comments, they have differing nuances. “Reply” refers to a response to a conversation you’re a part of, while “comment” is more general and refers to any message in the YouTube comment section.

Can Someone See if You Pinned Their Comment?

Yes, viewers can see their comments at the top when you pin them. These messages have a clear label and a pin icon. YouTube doesn’t notify people when you pin comments, but they do when you reply to comments, so respond to the pinned comment to make sure your followers see it.