While streaming content on YouTube, you have likely encountered circular “i” icons that pop up in the top-right corner of the video player, often accompanied by sliding teaser banners suggesting related videos, external merchandise, or channel polls. Known officially as Info Cards (and formerly as interactive annotations), these elements are added by creators to cross-promote content and drive viewer interaction.
While useful for discoverability, info card teasers can be visually intrusive—especially when watching documentaries, technical walkthroughs, or artistic films where unobstructed composition is paramount. If you frequently find yourself swatting away pop-up card teasers, YouTube provides an account-wide setting to turn them off completely. This guide explains how to disable in-video info cards on the desktop web interface, configure mobile preferences, and prevent visual distractions during playback.
Understanding How Info Cards and Teasers Function
YouTube info cards appear at timestamps designated by the video uploader. When the playback playhead reaches a card cue point, the player displays a teaser text banner for several seconds before collapsing into a small, translucent ⓘ icon in the upper-right corner. Tapping or clicking this icon slides out a drawer displaying external links, playlists, related uploads, or affiliated channels.
Crucially, disabling info cards in your YouTube account profile suppresses both the animated teaser banner and the interactive icon entirely across all standard uploads, giving you a clean, uninterrupted media viewport.
How to Turn Off In-Video Info Cards on YouTube Desktop Web
The global toggle controlling info cards is situated within your personal playback and performance preferences. Because this setting synchronises across your Google Account, configuring it once on desktop applies the rule universally when logged in.
- Navigate to
youtube.comin your desktop web browser and verify you are signed in to your Google Account. - Click on your profile avatar in the top-right corner of the window.
- From the drop-down menu, select Settings (represented by a gear icon).
- In the left-hand navigation sidebar, click Playback and performance.
- Under the primary options list, locate the setting labelled Info cards.
- Uncheck the box next to Show in-video info cards.
The change commits instantly to your profile without requiring you to click a manual save button. Any standard video you load subsequently will omit the sliding card teasers.
Managing Visual Cards and Teasers on Mobile (Android & iOS)
Unlike the desktop web client, the native YouTube mobile apps for Android and iPhone do not always expose a direct “Info cards” toggle inside their local Settings menu. Instead, mobile playback behaviour adheres to the cloud preferences set on your Google Account.
- Open a mobile browser (such as Safari on iOS or Chrome on Android).
- Visit
youtube.comand tap the account icon to confirm you are signed into the same profile used on your mobile app. - Tap the three vertical dots or your profile image, enter Settings, and select Playback and performance.
- Uncheck Show in-video info cards.
- Restart your native YouTube mobile app to ensure fresh profile flags are fetched from the server.
Pro Tip: If an individual video continues to show card teasers on mobile, open the video in full-screen mode and tap the player screen once. If a card drawer appears, swipe it closed to dismiss interactive overlays for the remainder of that session.
Distinguishing Info Cards from End Screens
It is important to distinguish between mid-video Info Cards and final-minute End Screens:
| Feature Type | Display Timing | Visual Presentation | Account Toggle Control |
|---|---|---|---|
| Info Cards | Any point selected by creator (often middle of video) | Top-right banner sliding in with ⓘ icon | Can be permanently toggled off in Playback settings |
| End Screens | Final 5 to 20 seconds of video playback | Large rectangular thumbnails covering video corners | Hardcoded into video canvas; requires ad-blocker filters to hide |
If you wish to hide End Screen thumbnails as well, browser extensions such as uBlock Origin allow you to apply custom CSS cosmetic filters (e.g. youtube.com##.ytp-ce-element) to block end-card overlays.
Troubleshooting Info Card Settings
- Cards still appear in Incognito or Private browsing: The “Show in-video info cards” preference is stored in your authenticated Google Account. When browsing signed out or in Incognito mode, YouTube defaults to showing all interactive creator cards.
- Setting reverts after browser cache clearing: If third-party cookie clearing or privacy extensions log you out of YouTube regularly, verify your sign-in status on the top right before concluding that the preference was reset.
- Video chapters still appear on the scrub bar: Disabling info cards does not disable video chapters or timestamp markers along the progress bar. Chapters are governed separately by YouTube’s timeline parser and creator metadata.