YouTube provides three different features to the content creators under the visibility criteria section when the creator is about to publish a video on the YouTube channel. These features let the creator decide how the creator wishes to show a video to people. These three features are called ‘Private’, ‘Unlisted’ and ‘Public’. Each feature has different importance. In this article, except for the public feature, I will talk about the two other features i.e. private vs unlisted YouTube.
Private vs unlisted YouTube –
Why do some creators make their YouTube videos private or unlisted before making them publically available? Well, there are so many reasons because when you’re uploading a video you need to do multiple tasks to capture your audience’s attention as well as to make it a YouTube SEO-optimized video, you need to upload your thumbnail, description, and tags before you make it publically available. This way you can improve your search ranking and also increase your YouTube views.
So let’s start this discussion with what is a private and unlisted video on YouTube.
What is private on YouTube?
For privacy reasons, YouTube allows creators to save their uploaded videos in a private mode. By doing this, the private video will not show up on YouTube search results, or on their YouTube video page or playlist. No one can access the private video except the creator himself and the few people the creator chooses to show them.
What is unlisted on YouTube?
What does unlisted mean on YouTube? Well, unlisted means you don’t want to make your uploaded video publicly available but want to share the link with some special people. Like the private video, the unlisted video will also not show up on YouTube search results, or the YouTube video page (except on the creator’s channel).
How to make video private on YouTube?
There are two ways to make a video private on youtube. The first method you can apply is when you upload a brand new video to your YouTube channel. And the second method you can use is when you have an already existing public/unlisted video and wish to make this video into a private video.
Following are the steps by steps of the first method to make a video private on YouTube –
Step 1- Open your YouTube account dashboard by clicking the ‘YouTube studio’ button.
Step 2- You’ll see a dialogue written as ‘Upload Videos’. Click it.
Step 3 – Now select your file.
Step 4 – Provide necessary details of your video then click ‘Next’.
Step 5 – Under the ‘Visibility’ section you’ll see a chart with three options i.e. ‘Private’, ‘Unlisted’ and Public’, that offers you to choose how you wish to upload this video.
Step 6 – Click the ‘Private’ option then again click the ‘SAVE’ button.
That’s how you can private a video.
Following are the steps by steps of the second method to make a video private on YouTube –
Step 1 – Go to the ‘Content’ tab under the ‘Dashboard’ tab on the left-hand side and then choose the video that you want to make this video private. After choosing the video click the down arrow symbol under the ‘Visibility’ section as shown in the below picture.
Step 2 – A popup will come out, click the private option and then click the ‘SAVE’ button.
That’s another way you can make a private video.
How to make video unlisted on YouTube?
Like the private video, you can also make a video unlisted by following the below steps. I have included two methods for this, the first method for brand new video and the other method for the old video.
First method –
Step 1- Open your YouTube account dashboard by clicking the ‘YouTube studio’ button.
Step 2- You’ll see a dialogue written as ‘Upload Videos’. Click it.
Step 3 – Now select your file.
Step 4 – Provide necessary details of your video then click ‘Next’.
Step 5 – Under the ‘Visibility’ section you’ll see a chart with three options i.e. ‘Private’, ‘Unlisted’ and Public’, that offers you to choose how you wish to upload this video.
Step 6 – Click the ‘Unlisted’ option then again click the ‘SAVE’ button.
That’s how you can make an unlisted video.
Following are the steps by steps of the second method to make a video unlisted on YouTube –
Step 1 – Go to the ‘Content’ tab under the ‘Dashboard’ tab on the left-hand side and then choose the video that you want to make this video private. After choosing the video click the down arrow symbol under the ‘Visibility’ section as shown in the below picture.
Step 2 – A popup will come out, click the unlisted option and then click the ‘SAVE’ button.
That’s another way you can make an unlisted video.
How to share a private YouTube video?
Suppose you want to share a private video with your close one, then what is the procedure for that. Below I will show you two methods step by step.
First method –
Step 1- Open your YouTube account dashboard by clicking the ‘YouTube studio’ button.
Step 2 – If you want to share your newly uploaded private video then go to the ‘Visibility’ section and select the ‘Private’ option.
Step 3 – Click the ‘SHARE PRIVATELY’ dialogue. A popup will appear on your screen, here you can enter the email address of the person that whom you want to share the video. And also check the ‘Notify via email’ option to give him/her notification mail.
Second method –
If you want to share an old private video to your close then follow these below steps.
Step 1 – Go to the ‘Content’ tab under the ‘Dashboard’ tab on the left-hand side and then choose the private video that you want to share. After choosing the video click the down arrow symbol under the ‘Visibility’ section as shown in the below picture.
Step 2 – A popup will come out, click the private option and then click ‘SHARE PRIVATELY’.
Step 3 – Another popup will appear on your screen, here you can enter the email address of the person that whom you want to share the video. And also check the ‘Notify via email’ option to give him/her notification mail.
How to share an unlisted YouTube video?
If you want to share your unlisted video then follow the below steps. I have included two methods –
First method –
Step 1- Open your YouTube account dashboard by clicking the ‘YouTube studio’ button.
Step 2 – If you want to share your newly uploaded private video then go to the ‘Visibility’ section and select the ‘Unlisted’ option and click ‘SAVE’.
Step 3 – A popup will appear on your screen with multiple mediums of communication to share this link. Copy the URL and share it with the chosen people.
Second method –
If you want to share an old unlisted video, then follow the below steps.
Step 1 – Go to the ‘Content’ tab under the ‘Dashboard’ tab on the left-hand side and then choose the unlisted video that you want to share. After choosing the video click the three vertical dots line under the ‘Video’ section as shown in the below picture.
Step 2 – A popup will appear with lots of options. Click the ‘Get Shareable link’ option. Your unlisted video URL will be copied and ready to share.
How to watch private YouTube videos?
As an audience how can you watch private YouTube videos? If you know a YouTuber personally and want to see his/her private videos, then you can ask the YouTuber to send the private YouTube videos via email address. That is the only way you can watch a private video.
How to watch unlisted YouTube videos?
In the case of unlisted videos, you can directly watch an unlisted video by asking the creators to share the URL. It is not restricted to the email medium, you can get this via different social mediums. And don’t need to log in to your YouTube account, simply you can watch the video by pasting it on a browser.
Should I make my video private or unlisted?
One thing is coming to our mind when we don’t want our newly uploaded video to make it public instantly or neither want to publish this video by scheduling a time. Then you have two options to choose from in the ‘Visibility’ section i.e. save the video as private or as an unlisted way. Each option has different features and serves you in a different way.
Private videos can only be seen if the creator himself invites you to see the private video through an email address, you can’t share a private video URL with other mediums of communication. But in the case of unlisted videos, you can share your unlisted video URL with anyone through any medium.
In the case of private videos, the invited person needs to open his YouTube account which is based on the same email i.e. the creator invited him through email or the inviter can just play the video in his email account if he/she using a PC. Otherwise, it will not play on other’s YouTube accounts. But with unlisted videos, you can play the video without any trouble. Simply paste the URL into your browser and tap enter.
Also, you can comment on unlisted videos but you can’t comment on private videos.
People make YouTube private or unlisted videos for various reasons if the creator made a personal video and wants privacy, and does not want to share this video with anyone or only selected people he can allow to watch the video, or if the creator makes this video which is sponsored by some companies and before making it publicly available the creator wants to show it with the company people to make sure it is ready to publish, or for also copyright issue some creator make their videos private or unlisted.
Conclusion –
I hope from the above discussion you can gain some knowledge about private vs unlisted YouTube. If you have any recommendations regarding private vs unlisted youtube videos then please feel free to comment down below.
