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.
The Algorithm can’t find a rhythm 🥁
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.
People love to complain
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
There’s browser extensions for it
True, probably like tamper monkey scripts if that’s still a thing
All that is left is letting people without a watch history default to seeing their subscriptions instead of a blank page. That’s the whole point of subscribing: I want my own curated experience. I don’t want to watch BS YouTube thinks I want to watch.
It was a mistake letting YouTube decide on behalf of everyone that recommendations was a better experience than letting the users decide for themselves what to watch. The recommendations are no less of an echo chamber. Worse, the recommendations are gamed with churned, garbage content. It’s the same problem as google search.
We need a return to form of user-curated content. Down with algorithmic recommendations.
You can get extensions which make the homepage redirect to your subscriptions page. Lifesaver imo.
That pretty much describes how I use my Piped server in Feed mode. It only show my subs and I can filter out Shorts from those as well. Pretty sure the public Pipeds are the same if you make an account.
Maybe you’d like to see some Andrew Tate shorts?
It actually works like this in the FreeTube app on PC or NewPipe on Android. It feels so much better having my own home page showing only videos who I’m subscribed to. Plus another added benefit is that you can put your subscriptions into categories, which is a great way of filtering down to the exact type of video’s you feel like watching at the time. FreeTube personally stopped my unhealthy video-watching habits almost instantly, which were basically psychologically trained into me by YouTube’s algorithm.
Honestly, so glad they are making this change. Now I don’t have to see the bottom of the barrel popular slop every time I use the incognito mode thing on Revanced.
What? That’s literally a feature I got with a plugin. YouTube feels so much better without the algorithmic reinforced “hype” videos with no content and it’s good for your mental health too.
Best. Change. Ever.
" shows a simple YouTube homepage without any videos or tips on what to watch."
I’ve had watch history off for like 7 years now and I haven’t had videos on my homepage for at least 2 years now. Hasn’t bothered me a bit, I only watch my subscription page and find new people with the recommendations based off of their videos.
Not sure if you care but if you turn watch history on, watch one video, then turn it back off it will give you homepage videos again. I almost always start from the bookmark for Subscriptions anyways, but this workaround has worked since the first time I did it.
Nah I also go straight to the subscription page. Just annoying that they kept videos in my homepage for years after I turned it off and then told me one day I need it on to have vids show up there.
That’s how I work, But I use FreeTube instead, which works the same way. There’s a trending videos page, but it doesn’t reccomend stuff based on your history.
YouTube without suggestions? You mean how it was back in the early days?? I would LOVE that.
Love it!
I hate the recommended screen, I just use an extension called unhook: hide YouTube recommended, but now I find out they’re doing it as the default? That’s sick
That’s fine, all the videos they suggest suck anyway. No I don’t want to watch Madonna’s Like a Virgin video when I’ve been watching Letterkenny clips, YouTube.
I moved to a newpipe fork about a year ago. I stopped using their suggestions altogether. I’m not going to lie it was a couple of months before I was able to get used to it. I’ve come to believe that having YouTube on permanent autoplay based on their algorithmic calculations of what I’d want to see is not entirely healthy for me.
At current, once I’ve watched everything from my chosen creators for the day. That’s it I’m done, I go and find something more useful to do.
Now I see only the shows from my chosen creators,and if one of those guys recommends a different creator that they enjoy I’ll usually throw a follow in that direction. Very organic very much not in someone’s pocket. I’ve avoided TikTok like the plague. I think that, as much as possible, no companies financial statement should have a serious impact over my content consumption.
which fork of new pipe are you using? I’d be interested to hear your take on it.
Tubular, it’s The same as new pipe plus sponsor block but it’s currently active.
Love it
I never watch YouTube while logged in if I can help it, and I’ve never subscribed to a channel either. I’ve just bookmarked the /videos page of the channels I like, and check them regularly.
As someone who subscribes to many channels, likely over 100, that post anywhere from daily to a few times per year, fuck that.
You should also consider using Grayjay or something instead to avoid that tedium.
You might like New Pipe/Tubular! Give it a go
Yes, I was like OP for years, but since I switched to NewPipe I also get to experience beeing subbed to chanels and just getting Infos about new Videos.
If you’re interested in sponsorblock integration and a return of the dislike button, have a look at Tubular, it’s a fork of NewPipe
Thanks, that’s awesome.
Is that a problem?? I mean I leave myself logged in all the time because I use google music and I absolutely hate their recommended videos and the algorithms behind it.
No fucking google I don’t want to watch some douche canoe movie reviewer complaining about the latest movie being woke just because I watched some other movie critic that’s actually thoughtful and insightful or at least funny to me without delving into sounding like a dog with the constant “woke…woke woke…woke woke woke woke”.
Recommending things when you’re not logged in means they’re tracking you without your consent. Why would anyone want that?
No they usually recommend what is trending to users who are not logged in or have no watch history
That said i personally really don’t mind the change
I’ve started using Invidious as a YouTube front end and it works really great for me
Oh, I interpreted “recommended” as recommended as in tailored to your preferences. What they mean is that youtube won’t show popular videos anymore. Still, doesn’t seem like the wrong choice to me necessarily, but I’m personally not interested in the type of videos that have the highest popularity.
