YouTube experiments with tool to improve user recommendations

TL;DR: YouTube is testing a new feature called “Your Custom Feed” to help users find videos that match their interests more easily. The experiment is now appearing for some users, giving them a new way to control what shows up on their home feed.

YouTube is testing a new feature called “Your Custom Feed” to help users find videos that match their interests more easily.
The experiment is now appearing for some users, giving them a new way to control what shows up on their home feed.
The goal is to fix the common problem where YouTube’s recommendations show videos that users don’t actually want.
With “Your Custom Feed,” people can request specific content, like cooking, travel, or tech, and YouTube will adjust what it shows.
Threads is also testing feed-adjustment tools, while X is developing a feature that uses its Grok AI chatbot to modify a user’s timeline.

YouTube is testing a new feature called “Your Custom Feed” to help users find videos that match their interests more easily. The experiment is now appearing for some users, giving them a new way to control what shows up on their home feed. The goal is to fix the common problem where YouTube’s recommendations show videos that users don’t actually want.

In this test, “Your Custom Feed” appears beside the usual Home tab. When users click it, they can type prompts based on topics they want to see. This lets people guide the algorithm instead of relying only on automatic recommendations.

YouTube’s current system has often been criticized for misunderstanding what viewers want. For example, watching a few Disney videos might make the platform assume you want more of that topic, filling your feed with similar content. The new test aims to prevent this by allowing users to give clearer direction.

With “Your Custom Feed,” people can request specific content, like cooking, travel, or tech, and YouTube will adjust what it shows. This may help reduce the need to click “Not Interested” or “Don’t Recommend Channel” repeatedly.

YouTube is not alone in exploring custom feeds. Threads is also testing feed-adjustment tools, while X is developing a feature that uses its Grok AI chatbot to modify a user’s timeline.

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