YouTube users from all over the internet have reported encountering a homepage completely devoid of content. That’s because the platform has decided it will no longer provide video recommendations if an account’s watch history is disabled “and has no significant previous (history)” available.
The company quietly made the announcement on a support page explaining certain features, such as your personal home feed, requires viewing history to function normally. Going forward, users who don’t allow YouTube to track will only see a search bar at the top of their page plus the four buttons in the left guide menu. The platform states that this update is intended to provide people with a “more streamlined (experience) for those … who prefer to search rather than browse recommendations.” It can also push users to get more acquainted with subscribed channels or the Topics tab since they won’t be distracted by a wall of videos.
Unroll
A YouTube community manager said these changes will roll out slowly, “over the next few months,” starting today, but as mentioned earlier, a few already have the update. Posts on X (formerly known as Twitter) and Reddit show the blank homepages on the YouTube mobile app as well as on desktop. All you see is a window stating that your watch history setting is currently off.
You can check if the patch has reached your account by going to the Activity Controls of your Google account. Scroll down and you’ll see the YouTube History entry where you can turn it off or make some tweaks. Go back to your account and see if there’s anything else.
User response
User reactions have been mixed. On the one hand you have people who are quite satisfied, even ecstatic, because their YouTube account will be a lot cleaner. Home feeds aren’t flooded with unwanted content just because they played a random video once. Others, however, are less enthusiastic saying this kills a “huge chunk” of YouTube. Part of the fun is that the algorithm shows you videos you might like, helping you discover hidden gems on the site. Some just don’t like the idea of having a completely blank home page or having to reactivate their viewing history.
Why is @YouTube forcing me to enable watch history? Without viewing history, the videos on the homepage are not visible. I don’t like this update! #youtube pic.twitter.com/8efIDJiFGMAugust 8, 2023
Now if only YouTube would allow us to opt out of seeing ads, but that’s wishful thinking. We will have to install an ad blocker in our browser.
Speaking of which, make sure you check out TechRadar’s list of the best ad blockers for 2023.