Melinda teaches at a high school in San Francisco and recently reached out to us with a problem. Her students just finished a video history project that she wanted to share with their parents and classmates. But she was concerned about posting the videos publicly because she didn’t want the whole world to find them (frankly, neither did her students). Melinda told us YouTube’s private sharing options -- a 25-person cap that’s limited to other YouTube users -- didn’t work for her. She needed an alternative option to privately share her students’ talent.

As a result we have rolled out a new choice that will help Melinda and other people like her: unlisted videos.

With this feature, you can mark your videos as "unlisted." This means only people who have the link to the video will be able to watch it. It won’t appear in any of YouTube’s public pages, in search results, on your personal channel or on the browse page. It’s a private video, except you don’t need a YouTube account to watch it and there is no limit to the number of people who can view it. You’ll get a link when you upload the video and then it’s up to you to decide who to share it with. Unlisted is the perfect option for that class project, video from last summer’s family reunion or your secret Broadway audition tape.




Just remember, the video can be viewed by anyone with the link, so only give it to people you trust! For more information, check out our Help Centre page.

Jen Chen, Software Engineer, recently watched “8-Bit Dr. Horrible (Act 1)”