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YouTube tests showing how many people are currently watching the same video

YouTube tests showing how many people are currently watching the same video

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Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

Pretty soon, you might be able to tell when a YouTube video is in the process of going viral. As spotted by Android Police, YouTube appears to be testing a new feature that will display concurrent viewer counts, giving you an insight on how many people are watching the same video at the same time. So far, it seems like the test is only live for select Android users, the count appearing under the title of the video where the overall view count would ordinarily be. It basically looks just like how it does when you watch a live video on mobile apps, but for regular uploads.

Image: Android Police

For creators, this might be a useful tool to gauge when your video is racking up hits. Viewers might also use this number to tell when a video is gaining traction, or to just appease the simple curiosity of whether anyone is in the weird corner of the internet at the same time you are.

We’ve reached out to YouTube to confirm whether the feature will be making a wider rollout and will update the post if we hear back.