YouTube is testing time-specific emoji reactions – allowing users to respond with hearts, laughing faces or confetti at specific moments in videos

The new YouTube feature is called 'timed reactions'

It allows users to share an emoji reaction at a precise moment in a video

Users can see how other are reacting in a dedicated reaction panel

This will display reactions by the moment, like Facebook Live or Twitch

The 'thumbs up' and 'thumbs down' buttons on YouTube are one of the site's key measures of engagement, but sometimes a video demands more nuanced feedback.

Now YouTube has announced it is testing a new feature called 'timed reactions', which allows users to share a reaction, such as a smiley face or confetti emoji, at a precise moment in a video.

Users can get a feel for how other viewers are reacting by looking at a dedicated reaction panel in the comment section of each video.

This will display anonymised emoji reactions by the moment, in a similar way to Facebook Live or Twitch.

YouTube is piloting timed reactions with a small number of channels to start with, but will expand the feature depending on the reception.

Users will have an array of emoji reactions to choose from, including the crying laughing face, a heart, the shocked face, the celebration party poppers, the 100 sign, a question mark, the idea light bulb and a screaming cat.

As well as giving viewers a new way to interact with videos, the timed reactions feature will allow YouTube creators to get more detailed user feedback, such as which parts are the most impactful and which jokes landed or bombed.

'If you're watching a video that is part of this experiment, you can react and see crowd reactions by opening the comment section of the video and tapping into the reaction panel,' said Meaghan, a representative from Team YouTube, in a blog post.

'The test will also show you which moments other viewers are reacting to (which will be anonymized – we won't show who sent each reaction).

'We're testing multiple sets of reactions and will add or remove reactions based on how the experiment goes!'

Google often trials new features on YouTube, and it should be noted that not all of them are rolled out to the masses.

The company is also reportedly experimenting with allowing YouTube users to time their comments to specific points in a video, and hiding the 'dislike' button.