Engagement signals
Also called: engagement as a signal, interaction signals
YouTube groups its ranking inputs into engagement signals, meaning clicks and how much of a video gets watched, and satisfaction signals, meaning likes, dismissals and survey answers. Creators usually mean the visible interactions. Those count, although they are patchier than retention, because every video has a watch curve while only a small share of viewers ever tap anything. On Shorts especially, per-video retention measures such as average view duration and viewed versus swiped away carry steadier weight than likes and comments. The common error is treating engagement as a score you can top up. Asking for likes lifts the number without changing whether the video was worth watching, which is the thing the system is trying to estimate.