I noticed my consumption has decased quite a bit. I would visit regularly to watch content from few channels. I would probably still visit every so often to watch the new videos. But the experience has become more deliberate and conscious. I go to YouTube because I want to go and watch something specific. Mindlessly browsing and watching additional content is harder.
This is good progress from Google to get off their platform :)
Why would I have my watch history turned off? I assumed that Google knows what I watched whether or not I tell them to keep that info available for me.
I have history turned on and it generally recommends stuff I'm interested in. My only complaint is that it doesn't update often enough and likes to recommend videos I've seen already.
Nah recommendations are shit anyway. I just watch my subscriptions
If you watch on Android get the reVanced app. No ads and skipping features. It'll skip sponsors, intros, and end credits plus a shit ton more. It's the stock YouTube UI with really granular control over features
Yes, the ads is a whole another level. Using it without ad-block is not pleasant one bit
I always keep watch history turned on, because the recommendation system has always sucked if you kept it turned off. It's more honest to the user now that they give up instead of intentionally sucking -- "we can't give recommendations if we don't know what you tend to watch". That basically makes sense to me and I accept the tradeoff this poses.
I know a lot of people think Youtube recommendations always suck and are therefore not even worth trying, but I beg to disagree. You can cultivate good recommendations, even if your interests have no overlap with the default front-page. It comes down to two basic ingredients:
- Use the "Not Interested" button on bad recommendations
- Click on the like/dislike buttons after watching videos
By default Youtube is going to try feeding you lowest common denominator junk. This is because it starts out knowing very little about you besides broad demographics. The more feedback you give it the less it falls back on this crutch until eventually you get solid recommendations. Every single bad recommendation is a hidden opportunity to tell Youtube to get that garbage out of your face.
And, yeah... in my experience this really works. If you click the buttons and make it a habit, you can get some really great stuff! As encouragement, I'll share a selection from my home feed full of fresh videos relevant to my tastes. Even the topic bar is on point:
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I'll probably watch all 3 of these videos at some point, which I think indicates a pretty successful outcome. In fact, over the years, I've found hundreds of channels almost exclusively using the recommendation system. Even if you primarily stick to your subscription box, improving your recommendations can help you with building that out little by little.
(Note: I am deliberately avoiding the question of whether or not one should want an algorithm to intimately understand their interests because that's a hard conversation and my soul has already long since been sold)
Recommendations have gotten better recently. I've been recommended more specific stuff and more stuff that has less than a thousand views, which is really small for YouTube. I feel like the algorithm now has more bias towards recency than trendiness. I don't mind being a guinea pig for new videos, much better than being inundated with successful clickbait and other crap.
spent a few hours yesterday sorting all of my subscriptions and moving them to newpipe. while having everything auto-backed up by google was convenient, newpipe is much better - i go in, watch some videos i saved into a playlist or that have come out from subscribed channels, then go out. it feels way better then being sucked in by the algorithm. i think i'll still use youtube's algorithm on my pc sometimes, as this setup hinders new content discovery. but overall, i'm really pleased so far with the new setup.
I've noticed a lot of users on here actually really like the lack of recommendations. My use hasn't gone down but I do miss having videos on the YouTube main page, particularly on my PC.
not really, i'd been under the impression that you needed history for recommendations up till they sent out the email about it earlier this month, so it's just always been on.
Yeah, I had a similar experience
I wonder why they did this though, before the change YouTube would recommend me videos based on videos I watched so it's not like they actually needed the watch history to be turned on
Yes, and it's been great! I mainly watch my subscriptions now, and the occasional tutorial I have to search for, but I'm glad to not have a bunch of clickbait thrown at me when I first open the app, now I don't get sidetracked or waste nearly as much time on useless schlock.
Well, I use NewPipe for my YT consumption, so I only visit ReVanced when I want to post a comment, so I was quite surprised, but it didn't change anything. Not uaing WiFi, however, changes the way you organise your data usage. I found I barely visited YT, even via newpipe, now that I stick to data only.
Yes, considerably. Although I still get suggestions through the YouTube app on Apple TV but they are mostly crap anyways.
