This tweak prevents the YouTube app from showing comments in landscape video mode.

If you’re used to the default YouTube app playing videos in full screen when you rotate your phone to landscape, then I can only imagine your dismay when the YouTube app added a new behavior where it displayed comments next to video playback before.. switch to full screen mode. I say this because I myself was not too happy with it.

It’s easy enough to close the comment section and go back to full screen video playback in landscape mode, but I really don’t think it should be a two-step process since most people use landscape mode to avoid the smaller video frame in portrait. orientation. And a new free release of a jailbreak tweak called youtube no panel from OS developer Elio Fegali highlights that I’m not the only one who thinks so.

This simple jailbreak tweak simply prevents the YouTube app from displaying the comments interface when you rotate your iPhone to landscape while playing a YouTube video. Once installed, the video will always appear in full screen when you switch to landscape mode, bringing back functionality that users enjoyed for a long time before YouTube decided to mess it up in a recent update to the iOS app.

In the /r/jailbreak message, Fegali says that it is already possible to disable the YouTube comment box in landscape mode of the YouTube app using the PoomSmart TYABConfig setting, however Fegali decided to release this setting as an easy installable patch for anyone who doesn’t want to deal with the complexities of customization. However, you can certainly use YTABConfig instead if that’s your cup of tea.

The youtube no panel jailbreak tweak is available as a free download from Elio Fegali’s personal repository through any package manager app of your choice and supports jailbroken iOS 13 and 14 devices with the latest version of the YouTube app installed (at the time of this writing, it’s version 17.40.5). Those who are not yet using Elio Feg’s personal repository can add it to their package manager application using the URL below:

Notably, a future update may break the no-configuration YouTube bar, so it might be wise to avoid updates to the YouTube app if you use it. Anyone who wants to view the source code of the youtube jailbreak tweak without the panel can visit the developer’s GitHub page to see it.

Do you hate it when the YouTube app displays comments when you use the horizontal video viewing orientation? Let us know in the comments section below.