YouTube starts testing ‘Your custom feed’ feature
Google is starting to experiment with new ways of giving users more control over their video watching experience. This time around, it is the feed feature which is getting something of an overhaul.
The main aim of the new ‘Your custom feed’ feature is to gives user greater control over the video recommendations they see. Although this new approach is still powered by an algorithm, there is at least some scope for tailoring how it works and – by extension – the content it throws up.
For now, this is an experimental feature, and it is limited to a subset of YouTube users. Google has not provided any details about the criteria that determine whether or not any given account is being given access right now, and we have no information about the timeline of development envisioned by the company.
In a message posted to YouTube Help, the team says:
Testing “Your Custom Feed”: We’re experimenting with a new feature called "Your custom feed," that lets you customize recommendations for your Home feed. If you are part of the experiment, you will see “Your Custom Feed” appear on your Home page as a chip besides “Home”. When you click into it, you can update your existing Home feed recommendations by entering a simple prompt. This feature is designed to give you an easy-to-use way to have more control over your suggested content. If you see it, check it out and share your feedback!
This is not the first time YouTube has tried out different ways of populating feeds. It has previously used a ‘Customize your feed’ prompt to invite user to ‘pick some videos to tell us what you like’
The way the new feature works is pretty simple, as well, hopefully providing a way to reset an algorithm that has been sent awry by a few off-topics viewing sessions. As this is Google, things will continue to be driven by AI, and there is unlikely to be a way to opt out of this. As noted by Social Media Today, there is a sense that Google is taking hints from the likes of Threads and Instagram in its approach to algorithm tweaking.
Have you seen this option in your account yet? If so, has it made much of a difference to the types of videos that are being served up to you?
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