YouTube is no longer showing recommended videos to users logged out of a Google account or using Incognito mode, making people concerned they are being bullied into always being signed into the service.
This change, which is now rolling out, shows a simple YouTube homepage without any videos or tips on what to watch.
As noted by some on X, users who have cleaned their search and watch history or turned off their history settings also see no suggestions when they’re logged in. Some people think YouTube is being pushy about this, trying to make users turn on their history settings.
Imagine being mad at this 😂
For anyone who wants to stay logged out of YouTube, but wants to see content they follow, I recommend the pocket tube extension for Firefox… or Chrome if you really have to… It lets you create subscription groups so you can see exactly the content you want when you want it.
I’m not mad, but I will say I underestimated how much worse it is when it isn’t curating to me. Yeah, I’d rather not have the bad suggestions, but good lord the default YouTube suggestions are nauseatingly bad.
I haven’t paid any attention to any channels but the ones I was already subscribed to the last couple years or so (mostly watching on NewPipe and Grayjay), and whenever I look at yt on my desktop where I’m not logged in, it’s just this cesspool of clickbait/ragebait and I’m like… people watch this shit? And they enjoy it, apparently?
Fire me into the sun, thanks.
i like this change
This is great news. I watch videos occasionally but I wouldn’t say I’m a user. I don’t want to be recommended videos. I want to watch the one I searched for, or my friend linked to me, and go on with my life.
just be prepared that the “default” YouTube recommendations are all clickbait + Mr. Beast + whatever fad is going around. The default recommendations are really really bad.
the trick is to be signed in with history cleared and turned off. Then your ‘recommendations’ homepage is just a blank screen begging you to turn on history tracking again
Though i don’t trust it not to track me secretly regardless, but that’s a different issue.
wouldn’t that have all the bad things about not having personalized recs (ie: seeing only popular clickbaity videos) while getting none of the benefits (ie: making harder for google to track you)
I’ve been using NewPipe lately and it’s given me a greater appreciation for the YouTube recommendations. Because NewPipe just uses the basic, generic recommendations that YouTube shows everyone that isn’t logged in, and holy shit I’d forgotten how just bad “mainstream” YouTube is.
just be prepared that the “default” YouTube recommendations are all clickbait
That’s not what Google is doing. They’re literally showing an empty page with a search box (and a sidebar of categories). Similar to going to google.com.
It’s clearly being A/B tested though - I only see the empty page sometimes. Other times I get the usual Mr Beast recommendations (this is with no login, not with a login but watch history disabled).
Lol the users being upset about this is the strangest part, I never ever want to see the recommended feed, how can I opt into this while signed in? XD
delete and pause your watch history, at least that’s how it works for me.
Yeah, I actually want my watch history though, been helpful a few times trying to remember some obscure vid I watched like 4 years ago
Subscriptions page really needs an overhaul, at least it mostly actually shows all the videos posted these days, would be nice if we could categorize them in some fashion, or if it auto-groupes videos from the same creator, an example… I like Kyle Kulinski’s Secular Talk, but he posts like 4-10 segments a day so it fills up my subs page
This is amazing. I saw YouTube only showing a search bar when I went there, and it was liberating. I could search and watch the video on the topic I wanted, then promptly leave. Without all the Hot and recommend shit being shoved down my throat.
You know you can always just search for stuff without checking the recommended section right? Its helpful to discover new channels though
