10mo ago

YouTube stops recommending videos when signed out of Google

www.bleepingcomputer.com YouTube stops recommending videos when signed out of Google

YouTube has changed how it works for people not signed into Google account or using incoginto mode, and it's not showing suggested videos anymore. This change, which is being tested with some random users, shows a very simple YouTube homepage without any videos or tips on what to watch.

YouTube is no longer showing recommended videos to users logged out of a Google account or using Incognito mode, making people concerned they are being bullied into always being signed into the service.

This change, which is now rolling out, shows a simple YouTube homepage without any videos or tips on what to watch.

As noted by some on X, users who have cleaned their search and watch history or turned off their history settings also see no suggestions when they're logged in. Some people think YouTube is being pushy about this, trying to make users turn on their history settings.

114 comments

Imagine being mad at this 😂
- For anyone who wants to stay logged out of YouTube, but wants to see content they follow, I recommend the pocket tube extension for Firefox.. or Chrome if you really have to... It lets you create subscription groups so you can see exactly the content you want when you want it.
  
  I'll throw in, YouTube channels are all fully functional RSS feeds, and you don't need to interact with YouTube at all to get your subscriptions.
- I'm not mad, but I will say I underestimated how much worse it is when it isn't curating to me. Yeah, I'd rather not have the bad suggestions, but good lord the default YouTube suggestions are nauseatingly bad.
  
  The Algorithm can't find a rhythm 🥁
  
  I haven't paid any attention to any channels but the ones I was already subscribed to the last couple years or so (mostly watching on NewPipe and Grayjay), and whenever I look at yt on my desktop where I'm not logged in, it's just this cesspool of clickbait/ragebait and I'm like... people watch this shit? And they enjoy it, apparently?
  Fire me into the sun, thanks.
- People love to complain

i like this change

This is great news. I watch videos occasionally but I wouldn't say I'm a user. I don't want to be recommended videos. I want to watch the one I searched for, or my friend linked to me, and go on with my life.
- just be prepared that the "default" YouTube recommendations are all clickbait + Mr. Beast + whatever fad is going around. The default recommendations are really really bad.
  
  the trick is to be signed in with history cleared and turned off. Then your 'recommendations' homepage is just a blank screen begging you to turn on history tracking again
  Though i don't trust it not to track me secretly regardless, but that's a different issue.
  
  I've been using NewPipe lately and it's given me a greater appreciation for the YouTube recommendations. Because NewPipe just uses the basic, generic recommendations that YouTube shows everyone that isn't logged in, and holy shit I'd forgotten how just bad "mainstream" YouTube is.
  
  just be prepared that the “default” YouTube recommendations are all clickbait
  That's not what Google is doing. They're literally showing an empty page with a search box (and a sidebar of categories). Similar to going to google.com.
  It's clearly being A/B tested though - I only see the empty page sometimes. Other times I get the usual Mr Beast recommendations (this is with no login, not with a login but watch history disabled).
  
  Wait… that makes no sense. You won’t see them now. There are no recommendations.

Lol the users being upset about this is the strangest part, I never ever want to see the recommended feed, how can I opt into this while signed in? XD
- delete and pause your watch history, at least that's how it works for me.
  
  Yeah, I actually want my watch history though, been helpful a few times trying to remember some obscure vid I watched like 4 years ago
  Subscriptions page really needs an overhaul, at least it mostly actually shows all the videos posted these days, would be nice if we could categorize them in some fashion, or if it auto-groupes videos from the same creator, an example... I like Kyle Kulinski's Secular Talk, but he posts like 4-10 segments a day so it fills up my subs page
- There's browser extensions for it
  
  True, probably like tamper monkey scripts if that's still a thing

This is amazing. I saw YouTube only showing a search bar when I went there, and it was liberating. I could search and watch the video on the topic I wanted, then promptly leave. Without all the Hot and recommend shit being shoved down my throat.
- Exactly! I love this new feature :)
- You know you can always just search for stuff without checking the recommended section right? Its helpful to discover new channels though
  
  Except the algorithm has been horrible for, like..., five years maybe?

Uh, how could Google show any personal recommendations without storing any data to base that on? If anything this seems to be Google actually doing what they say they're doing.
- They could do what they did back in the day; show recommended videos based on the current one.
  
  show recommended videos based on the current one.
  They still do in my recent experience.
  It's just not based on any longer viewing history than the current session.
  The homepage rhat starts the viewing session will generally be just what's popular with the general audience in the approximate location they can geolocate from your IP address. If you are logged out and try a few different locations on a VPN, you'll get different homepages to start a new (logged out) session from.
- Google has been perfectly happy to track you with browser fingerprints – just if they showed personalized results, it would be giving their hand away …
- Cookies... But yes i noticed it too recently that you dont even get a homepage / trending list anymore when turning on proper privacy settings.
- They kinda don't! It'd be trending videos near your IP locations + your watch history for this browser session
- Not personal recommendations, they won't show anything. It would be like loading up Lemmy/Reddit and not seeing anything until you logged in or subscribed to a community.

All that is left is letting people without a watch history default to seeing their subscriptions instead of a blank page. That's the whole point of subscribing: I want my own curated experience. I don't want to watch BS YouTube thinks I want to watch.
It was a mistake letting YouTube decide on behalf of everyone that recommendations was a better experience than letting the users decide for themselves what to watch. The recommendations are no less of an echo chamber. Worse, the recommendations are gamed with churned, garbage content. It's the same problem as google search.
We need a return to form of user-curated content. Down with algorithmic recommendations.
- It actually works like this in the FreeTube app on PC or NewPipe on Android. It feels so much better having my own home page showing only videos who I'm subscribed to. Plus another added benefit is that you can put your subscriptions into categories, which is a great way of filtering down to the exact type of video's you feel like watching at the time. FreeTube personally stopped my unhealthy video-watching habits almost instantly, which were basically psychologically trained into me by YouTube's algorithm.
- Maybe you'd like to see some Andrew Tate shorts?
- That pretty much describes how I use my Piped server in Feed mode. It only show my subs and I can filter out Shorts from those as well. Pretty sure the public Pipeds are the same if you make an account.
- You can get extensions which make the homepage redirect to your subscriptions page. Lifesaver imo.

Don’t threaten me with a good time!

Honestly, so glad they are making this change. Now I don't have to see the bottom of the barrel popular slop every time I use the incognito mode thing on Revanced.

YouTube without suggestions? You mean how it was back in the early days?? I would LOVE that.
- You can use the Unhook extension to do this right now on at least Firefox and Chrome.

What? That's literally a feature I got with a plugin. YouTube feels so much better without the algorithmic reinforced "hype" videos with no content and it's good for your mental health too.

Best. Change. Ever.

" shows a simple YouTube homepage without any videos or tips on what to watch."
I've had watch history off for like 7 years now and I haven't had videos on my homepage for at least 2 years now. Hasn't bothered me a bit, I only watch my subscription page and find new people with the recommendations based off of their videos.
- That's how I work, But I use FreeTube instead, which works the same way. There's a trending videos page, but it doesn't reccomend stuff based on your history.
- Not sure if you care but if you turn watch history on, watch one video, then turn it back off it will give you homepage videos again. I almost always start from the bookmark for Subscriptions anyways, but this workaround has worked since the first time I did it.
  
  Nah I also go straight to the subscription page. Just annoying that they kept videos in my homepage for years after I turned it off and then told me one day I need it on to have vids show up there.

This is too good to be true. How long until Google reverses this decision? 😂
- They change their mind about 100 things bi-weekly. I'm frankly numb to it. I never know what's going on, just keep riding the unpredictable rollercoaster.
  like remember a few weeks ago for one day YouTube had an option to choose from recommended videos based on our favorite color scheme? So weird & pointless but i chose Blue lavender then They presented me with a bunch of videos with a blue lavender-ish thumbnail, and I chose one to watch, then everything went back to normal and they never gave me the colors option again.
- In EU the next time the law changes 😁

Love it!
I hate the recommended screen, I just use an extension called unhook: hide YouTube recommended, but now I find out they're doing it as the default? That's sick

Yeah... this isn't a bad thing as far as I'm concerned. I have never used the front page for anything, besides the search bar, and even that's waning.

That's fine, all the videos they suggest suck anyway. No I don't want to watch Madonna's Like a Virgin video when I've been watching Letterkenny clips, YouTube.

This is an amazing way to view youtube .... this isn't a degradation of the service ... it's the first good useful thing they've done in years

Wouldn't the recommendations be crap anyway? When they don't know your watch history?
- I was logged out the other day without realizing and for the first time I saw Mr. Beast and other similar content being recommended

I never watch YouTube while logged in if I can help it, and I've never subscribed to a channel either. I've just bookmarked the /videos page of the channels I like, and check them regularly.
- As someone who subscribes to many channels, likely over 100, that post anywhere from daily to a few times per year, fuck that.
  You should also consider using Grayjay or something instead to avoid that tedium.
- You might like New Pipe/Tubular! Give it a go
  
  Yes, I was like OP for years, but since I switched to NewPipe I also get to experience beeing subbed to chanels and just getting Infos about new Videos.

I like to tell myself I even get better search results when signed out (YouTube doesn’t seem to try as hard to insert extra filler)
- I'm so tired of searching for something specific, getting two or three results relevant to my search, then it just goes into my subscriptions and other recommended channels. I'm really really hoping a new video site comes up soon to replace YouTube. You can't even use YouTube as a video host anymore. I tried uploading some gameplay of me and my friends fucking around. Had music in the background. I put the video as unlisted, marked it as mature, I'm not a partner or anything that would get me paid, and YouTube refused to allow me to upload it without first muting the music parts. All I wanted was an easy way to share a personal video with my friends, but no, YouTube needs to make money off of every little thing that gets uploaded so I end up fucked even though I have no intentions of making "content".
  
  Dont forget to mention getting unrelated shorts shoved down your throat everywhere. I seriously deleted my decade old youtube channel over this. Fuck Google.
  
  This is the craziest thing. I make a search, I want to see search results.
  "Here's some totally unrelated videos for you!"
  No! I want search results!
  "Here's the annoying ass you've blocked five times!"
  No! Search results!
  "Here's the video you just watched!"
  I did a search! I want to see search results and nothing else. The last possible thing I'd watch is what I already finished before searching for a different very specific thing.
  "Here's the worst cancer in your country for you!"
  JUST GIVE ME SEARCH RESULTS!

Love it

Recommending things when you're not logged in means they're tracking you without your consent. Why would anyone want that?
- No they usually recommend what is trending to users who are not logged in or have no watch history
  That said i personally really don't mind the change
  I've started using Invidious as a YouTube front end and it works really great for me
  https://invidious.io/
  
  Oh, I interpreted "recommended" as recommended as in tailored to your preferences. What they mean is that youtube won't show popular videos anymore. Still, doesn't seem like the wrong choice to me necessarily, but I'm personally not interested in the type of videos that have the highest popularity.

I moved to a newpipe fork about a year ago. I stopped using their suggestions altogether. I'm not going to lie it was a couple of months before I was able to get used to it. I've come to believe that having YouTube on permanent autoplay based on their algorithmic calculations of what I'd want to see is not entirely healthy for me.
At current, once I've watched everything from my chosen creators for the day. That's it I'm done, I go and find something more useful to do.
Now I see only the shows from my chosen creators,and if one of those guys recommends a different creator that they enjoy I'll usually throw a follow in that direction. Very organic very much not in someone's pocket. I've avoided TikTok like the plague. I think that, as much as possible, no companies financial statement should have a serious impact over my content consumption.
- which fork of new pipe are you using? I'd be interested to hear your take on it.
  
  Tubular, it's The same as new pipe plus sponsor block but it's currently active.

Is that a problem?? I mean I leave myself logged in all the time because I use google music and I absolutely hate their recommended videos and the algorithms behind it.
No fucking google I don't want to watch some douche canoe movie reviewer complaining about the latest movie being woke just because I watched some other movie critic that's actually thoughtful and insightful or at least funny to me without delving into sounding like a dog with the constant "woke...woke woke...woke woke woke woke".

Their algorithm sucks. I don't want to see a how-to video I saw 12 years ago. It's there nothing else on the internet?!?!
- I see a lot of recommendations for videos from channels I watch that are very old and I've seen them before. I frequently submit feedback that I've seen it and I don't want to rewatch something I've seen before (unless I'm specifically searching for it).
  Also, if I jump into my history feed, and go back as far as I can, I eventually hit the end, and I know I've watched more than wherever the end is. So the history falls off eventually. Frustrating.
  
  I too also submit feedback to say that I have seen these videos before. I have even had a video auto play the same video I just watch prior to the one I'm watching. Honestly, what are they doing?

I honestly thought this was how it always worked...seems like a good thing if they're at least appearing to not track people who aren't signed in, especially since in every other way they will try to get your data fighting tooth and claw. (Not saying they aren't tracking habits of non account users though)

Oh no ! Anyway .
- Best feature so far
  
  Exactly

Considering the right-wing garbage YT is constantly trying to slip into my recommendations - a habit of YT that has mysteriously gotten a whole lot worse in the last few weeks - I'd say they are threatening me with a good time.

It's pretty obvious they're only doing this to try to push people who like the recommendations to create an account. But can't people just create throwaway accounts to temporarily relieve their recommendation fix?
Their recommendations are useless anyway. I don't want to see 200 rock hard abs videos just because I watched a clip of Roseanne doing sit-ups.

I stopped letting YouTube save my watch history years ago because their suggestion algorithm became too intrusive: watch a quick cooking tutorial, get nothing be cooking channels, look up the proper way to use a toggle bolt, YouTube wants to teach me how to re-shingle a roof. It was out of control.
First, they took away my home screen, because they claimed they couldn't reccomend videos without my watch history (even though they'd done it for years). Then they took away the shorts tab, because they said they couldn't reccomend shorts without my watch history (even though they'd done it for months). So now I just have my subscriptions, a curated list of things I actually want to watch. They've punished me with the product I wanted this whole time.

Not a Bug.

My guess,
It was too hard to create a non-authenticated algorithm which could let users delete their past participation.
They realized their non-auth algorithm was exposing too much info about what is going on during the upcoming election. And they are afraid that people will see all the fasc recommendations.
- It has stopped doing this for me too though. I'm European. I'm assuming it's because they really want to stay on the correct side of European law.
  
  so many companies telling on themselves when they would rather remove functionality or block countries rather than just comply with privacy regulations …
- I think it's number 2. Now I can't see what the "default" presentation is (which always had 1 conspiracy theory thing).
  
  This was my first thought

This is more of a feature than a problem IMO.
Most services (like meta/Facebook/Instagram/anything owned by zuck', the service formerly known as Twitter....) are going to a model of: you need an account to even see anything posted publicly.
Not just extremely limited information like LinkedIn, like, instant redirect to "you need to be logged in to see this" or simply a login page.
At least you can still find something you want to see, and go and watch it... With ads and everything, sure, but the information is there and accessible.

they also dont recommend anything on your homepage when you're signed in if you don't have your watch history turned on (as if they're not tracking it anyway)
lol, who cares

Fantastic news.

will this affect invidious/piped?

deleted by creator

YouTube definitely not bullying users into staying signed it so that Google can aggregate more data about you /s

Meh. For all the YT I consume, I haven't visited the site in years. yt-dlp, sponsor block, invidious, and newpipe keep me far away, while still having all my subs stored in a json file. Simple, easy, no algo suggestions, just organic heard about them from word of mouth sub on an alternative platform. No ads, no sponsor or patreon mentions, no like, no subscribe. Is bliss.
EDIT: Typo fix and slight rewording.

Service to humanity.

I noticed this a few days ago or so and I was delighted by it. I never sign in to YouTube and hated the garbage recommendations on the homepage.

As with what others are saying here, pulling out algo nonsense is good, however I do worry that it slowly devolves into something similar to what's happening with Twitter where you can barely look at anything without being pushed to login. It's unusable unless you have an account. Websites shouldn't operate like that.

You search for one thing and it starts showing recommendations.
I fail to see how this is a bad thing. Youtube's old default homepage would show scam and content mill recommendations.

making people concerned they are being bullied into always being signed into the service
So, the majority WANTS to see the political propaganda, endless livestream of chill music to relax and study to, a bunch of spoiled kids making faces, and something indistinguishably small being pointed at by a huge red arrow?

I have never signed in to use YouTube
- Congratulations?

It'll be rolled back when they realize engagement drops.

this move kinda got me to stop using youtube (for me, it also happens when my watch history is empty, and then it Specifically Nags that you need to unpause it for the feed to come back.) From personal reflection, I get how they could see people just enabling the watch history if they do this. (though right now, you don't need to not have it paused, there just needs to be stuff in it for the feed)

114 comments