YouTube is adding prompt-built recommendation feeds and new shortcuts to its mobile Home screen, giving eligible U.S. viewers more ways to reach selected topics and subscribed channels.
Signed-in viewers in the United States who are at least 13 can create a Custom Feed by entering a subject, an interest or channels they want reflected in recommendations. The feature is rolling out in English. YouTube’s announcement says search history must be enabled; its Help Center also lists watch history and an English device setting as requirements, and says Custom Feeds are not available on tablets.
Free accounts can keep as many as three active feeds, while YouTube Premium accounts can keep eight. YouTube says users can edit saved feeds. Its Help Center says a prompt expires after 30 days without activity. YouTube places the stored feeds in the upper part of Home so viewers can return to them.
The mobile Home update adds Subs, Live and Music. Movies & TV is shown to viewers with active Primetime Channel subscriptions or YouTube TV add-ons, according to YouTube’s Help Center. A viewer can also access a feed created on mobile from desktop by using the same Google account.
Viewing through a Custom Feed adds videos to a viewer’s watch history and can influence recommendations on Home, YouTube says. The company says those views count toward creators’ watch-time and monetization totals under the usual rules. YouTube also says it is tracking whether Custom Feeds affect views, watch time or revenue.
YouTube previewed the feature at its Sept. 23 Made on YouTube event, where it described saved feeds that would refresh with recommendations. The company has not announced when the feature will reach other countries or language settings, saying it is working to extend access to more users and regions. It has not provided a schedule for that expansion. The announcement gives no country-by-country schedule for the navigation redesign, either.
