You-Tube Annotation: Recent Update: The ability to add or edit annotations is going away 2nd May'17

With the recent development i.e. from May 2, YouTube will turn off the ability to add or edit annotations.

What’s not changing? 

• Existing annotations will continue to show on desktop computers.

Why this change? 

• Annotations are outdated. They don’t even work on mobile devices, which represent 60% of YouTube watch time. And annotation usage has dropped by 70% as creators switch to cards and to the newly launched end screens.

Alternatives:

• Use cards to link to related videos, channels, websites, and polls.
• Use end screens to promote things to viewers when they’re ready to click – at the end of your video.
• Together, end screens and cards are at least 5 times better at keeping viewers on your channel.