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 :)
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I stopped using recommendations years ago and only use NewPipe and Invidious. I did notice a reduction in my watch time, but there is plenty to watch when using a subscription-only feed. I havent added very many channels to my list since then, but personalized recommendations aren’t worth the privacy cost. Hoping to leave the platform eventually
You talk about leaving like it’s an addiction, but it sounds like you enjoy the content.
I have a few subs that I enjoy, but it’s not like I can find replacements like I did with twitter and Reddit.
Hoping to leave how? Just by not watching anything, or just hopeful of a replacement?
Haha yeah, nicely put. I do enjoy the content, mostly because I’ve been following these creators for some time, and it’s hard to find a replacement for it… there is a lot of great content there, but it makes me feel gross using it. And same, I had no problem finding an alternative for Reddit (this), probably because I was not very attached to individual creators there.
I’m hoping a decentralized solution gains traction, but in the meantime I’ve been trying to limit the amount of information I share with the platform. I’m not actively trying to restrict my usage (most of that was achieved when I stopped using an account), but maybe it’s a good idea to do so. I mostly use it when eating or going to sleep, and there are better ways to occupy that time.
Yeah, I use the regular Youtube client more frequently, because my senses aren’t assaulted by a crapass load of thumbnails of dumb stuff.
I never went to the homepage unless I accidentally landed there because of autofill. I normally just go straight to subscriptions. There are still recommendations under videos, so I check that out every so often, mostly because my secondary monitor is portrait and I can see them under the video
This is my standard. Subscriptions or bust.
There was a time, maybe 5+ years ago, when I’d occasionally go to YouTube’s homepage, right-click every video in the feed, and select “don’t recommend channel.” After doing that off and on for a year or so, I suddenly found myself with an empty homepage. Absolutely no videos would load, just a blank white screen with a YouTube search bar at the top. It was glorious.
That is, until Google updated YouTube and it removed all my preferences. Now I have unlimited video recommendations on my homepage and I can’t seem to make them all go away anymore. #BringBackOldYouTube
Same, the subscription page is essentially my homepage. It has exactly the content I want on it, and I can always use the sidebar recommendations if I feel like browsing for something new after my queue is complete.
No, the recommendations became shit ever since I put on ad blocker so I wasn’t really using them. If anything, now with history off I actually pay closer attention to the people I’m subscribed to since there is a subscription tag that I didn’t realize I was ignoring.
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.
I mostly use Odysee, so no change for me.
As someone who routinely watches YT through Invidious and NewPipe, I haven’t changed my habits.
NewPipe user here, and same thing. It’s amazing.
Yeah, I catch myself sometimes to switch to NewPipe. But sometimes the videos just don’t play. And sometimes it works fine
Yes, I’ve experienced that too. Newpipe generally functions smoothly on my phone, working around 98% of the time. However, when I opt for invidious, the videos sometimes doesn’t play.
Recently, I’ve been leaning towards using Freetube more. I’ve configured it to include invidious in the settings. It appears that it seamlessly switches between different invidious instances, ensuring an better user experience than just using a normal invidious instance.
Major bugs usually get fixed pretty quickly- I always check the GitHub to make sure I have the latest version when I have issues. And Invidious can work as an alternative most of the time, but some instances work better than others
Was unusable for some weeks once, now fixed again and just works. Sometimes crashes but videos always play
Nope. I’ve always had my history disabled, so my homepage was always full off clickbait junk which I never paid attention to. Usually I find new content by searching for stuff that I’m actually interested in, or by recommendations IRL or online.
I haven’t been on YouTube in over a month but it’s because the ads were getting way out of control.
I use YouTube every day and haven’t see an ad once.
Then you’re definitely using adblocker or Premium. Because YouTube shows ads before (and sometimes after also) almost every video these days.
Not sure what your platform of choice is but unlock origin for firefox or youtube revanced for phone are 2 great ways to remove ads.
Nah recommendations are shit anyway. I just watch my subscriptions
I actually like the recommendations. I usually only get content that’s relevant to my interests, and I’m always finding new channels that are interesting and worth my sub.
Sometimes I wonder what I’m doing differently from everybody else, because I never see much of the spammy/irrelevant content everyone else seems to be getting. Or maybe I’m just easy to please.
My recommendations are broken. It just repeates what I’d been watching and never nothing new. I don’t know why my algorithm is broken. I have gotten to the point of watching more movies and tv shows at this point.
Do you actually tell it what you do and don’t like? If it keeps recommending a channel you don’t like, click the “no more from this channel,” or “don’t recommend things like this” or whatever those options are.
If you do that, as well as thumbs up/down, you get good recommendations. Really not very hard.
There’s a new tab. That might fix your issue
I love long form comedy content but it does nothing but recommend 30 second clip content. It’s absurd. I just can’t like and interact with the videos I actually like enough.
I do a search for a specific comedian with the words “full set” in the search terms. I do the search outside of the YT app (e.g., using DDG) and watch it either on Firefox with UBO or I search for it in Newpipe. And then subscribe in Newpipe ( and in the regular YT app so they get a little engagement; I also go in and randomly like a few of their videos).
I don’t know what kind of comedy you’re into but here’s a full Matteo Lane set (I think he’s hilarious) - enjoy:
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/K2rxborNVsc
https://piped.video/K2rxborNVsc
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
Then tell it you don’t like those channels and thumbs down the short stuff you don’t want, and thumbs up the long stuff you do.
Remove the “shorts” section entirely (I know you can with vanced, forget about vanilla) if those are the 30 sec videos you mean. I hate them and ignore them entirely. Simple.
It’s really not hard to get YouTube to be a pretty damn good recommendation engine. You just have to give it some constraints.
Me: I interact negatively and it doesn’t work
You: then just interact negatively.
I have the same experience and I’m wondering if it’s because I’m not American?
I also have a good experience with it and am American. But I also pay for premium for my family and I wonder if it’s not pushing contentious shit to maximize watch time because they already have my money?
I’m American. I use adblockers extensively and do not pay for premium. I’ve always enjoyed my recommendations and they have always been very relevant to my interests. I don’t get spammy content.
Same. I like the recommended stuff, it actually matches my background noise preferences and has changed over time too and landed some shots in the dark.
It has one drawback: Repetition. I watch a dumb and savage 10s clip from an old cartoon, I get 20 clips recommended. And if one was particularly popular, it recommends that one 20 times. Thing is, it switches gears fast, specially if I tell it I’m not interested. It’s the only algorithm that just seems to GET the concept of “give me DIFFERENT trash”.
Same. I usually find something in the first 4 results that are relevant and interesting. Only thing I wish it did more is expand a bit. It heavily favors stuff related to what you’ve watched very recently. There’s some channels I love but completely forget about because I haven’t played them in a little where.
I’m in the same boat. The recommendations don’t bother me too much, except when it recommends me videos I’ve seen in the recent or distant past. Also, when I watch one video from someone, then come to find out they’re part of some right wing culture and end up getting recommended the right wing rabbit hole videos for a few weeks.
I have the opposite experience. YouTube is always pushing dumbass recommendations. I only go to YouTube when someone links to a video I’m interested in, say some neat demonstration of a old analog synthesizer, and there’ll be a couple of slightly interesting suggestions on synths, I’ll click on that and then the recommendations are like “Woah!!! Check out what happens when I stick a synth cable into my butt!!!” And it’s not because I ever watch videos like that, in fact that shit is what makes me close the YouTube window and never go back until some other website links me directly to an actually good video again.
I only go to YouTube when someone links to a video I’m interested in
I wonder if this is part of the discrepancy, as I use YouTube pretty much all day long. I work from home and pretty much always put some YouTube videos on my TV while I’m working. Maybe YT just has a more robust dataset for my account to filter recommendations better.
“Woah!!! Check out what happens when I stick a synth cable into my butt!!!” And it’s not because I ever watch videos like that
You don’t gotta hide it. We’re all friends here. ;)
Hahaha going to a random invidious recommendations page also only shows tech stuff. Pretty nieche though
Same for me. Sure there’s crap in there sometimes and because I like some Atheist/Philosophy vontent YT kinda likes to shove Prager U and other religious channels down my throat from time to time. But hesides that, I’m usually quite happpy with my recommendations
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.
Yes, considerably. Although I still get suggestions through the YouTube app on Apple TV but they are mostly crap anyways.
Yes. No, I’m not gonna turn it back on, even though I really want recommendations back.
Recommendations discovered for me a lot of awesome (useful) channels, people and music. At the same time, it wasted A LOT of my time and energy. The issues outweigh the benefits
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