TechAltar12h ago

PSA: If you share a YouTube video using the native share feature it now attaches your user ID (?si=xxxxxx) to the URL automatically.

YT likely does this to growth-hack DMs. When someone clicks on the link, YT can start a DM thread between you two automatically with this ID even if they found the link outside of the YT app.

If you post links publicly, I strongly recommend deleting the ID unless you want to post your user profile.

Show threadThibaultmol 🌈12h ago
@Techaltar tbf, this isn't new, si has been in the URL for probably a decade now. And they've definitely been using this data before. It's only now that it's in a user visible ui item.
Edit: see my later reply, turns out that it has been a thing for a while not a decade
Show threadTechAltar
@thibaultmol It has? I haven't seen it in my shared links until about 2 weeks ago which coincides with their DM push. Maybe they are experimenting with different users differently?
10:29amWeb
Show threadjack12h ago
@Techaltar @thibaultmol there was "si" (which I didn't remove, just edit to "si=yes") that's been around a while, and recently there's "is"
Show threadSiddharth S11h ago

@thibaultmol I concur.

@Techaltar
I am surprised that you noticed it recently. I have been removing these annoying tags using URLCheck for as long as I can remember.

@neatnit 🤝
I wholeheartedly recommend URLCheck to anyone who wants to tackle these annoyances on #android.
https://github.com/TrianguloY/URLCheck

@jackeric that "is" tag is there right? I saw it once somewhere and thought either the URL was broken or I was hallucinating or something. 😅

GitHub - TrianguloY/URLCheck: Android app by TrianguloY: URLCheck

Android app by TrianguloY: URLCheck. Contribute to TrianguloY/URLCheck development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub
Show threadThibaultmol 🌈11h ago
@Techaltar Just checked, I found a link of mine that has &si= at the end that I shared back in 2023.
Before that they did have &feature=share just to indicate that it was from someone who clicked the share button on a video.
So yeah, not new but also not as old as I thought it was
Show threadtehuro10h ago
@Techaltar @thibaultmol yes, for a few years at least... You can find it in almost all YT links posted online in last few years since barely anyone removes tracking parameters before sending links
Show threadClickyMcTicker7h ago

@Techaltar @thibaultmol Not sure about the over/under on a decade, but I was removing those source identifier keys back when I ran a business’ social media account back around 2018.

A lot of people bypass the issue by grabbing the URL straight out of their browser, but I sometimes use the time key to have the video start at a specific point, and using their share function is quicker than manually calculating and adding it to the URL.