For many years, people have complained about YouTube’s home feed. You click one video out of curiosity and suddenly your whole page fills up with similar videos that you never asked for. You watch one cooking video and the platform thinks you want to be a chef. You play a baby video for a younger cousin and your feed becomes a wall full of cartoon songs. It happens to a lot of us and it can be annoying.
YouTube seems to know this problem very well and the company is now testing a new feature that aims to fix this messy home feed. The feature is called Your Custom Feed. It gives users more control over the videos they see, instead of letting the algorithm make all the choices.
This could be a very big change for YouTube, because for the first time, users can tell the platform what they want to watch in a simple and clear way.
What is Your Custom Feed on YouTube
YouTube is testing a small new button called Your Custom Feed. It appears next to the normal Home button for some users. This button opens a new page that lets you enter your own prompts. A prompt is simply something you type in to tell YouTube what you want to see more of or less of.
For example, you can type:
- more travel videos
- less gaming content
- show me cooking clips
- more videos on fitness
- fewer celebrity clips
When you type a prompt, YouTube will update your home feed to match what you want. This means you no longer have to rely only on the algorithm. You can guide the platform and shape your feed with simple words.
Why YouTube is adding this feature
YouTube has always used an algorithm that tries to guess what you want. It checks what you watch, what you search for, and how long you watch videos. But this system is not perfect and many users feel that it fails too often.
A few things can confuse the algorithm, such as:
- watching random videos out of curiosity
- letting a child use your account
- clicking a video by mistake
- watching a topic only once
- trying something new for fun
These small actions can quickly make the algorithm think you love that topic. The result is a messy home feed that does not show what you truly want. When this happens, the user experience becomes stressful instead of enjoyable.
YouTube knows that the recommendation system often gets things wrong, and this new feature is a way to give users more direct control. Instead of guessing, YouTube can now ask you what you want.
How Your Custom Feed works in simple words
Here is the simplest explanation possible.
- You click the Your Custom Feed button.
- You type what you want to see or not see.
- YouTube reads your prompt.
- YouTube updates your home page based on what you typed.
That is all. You do not need to click Not Interested on many videos. You do not need to block channels one by one. You do not need to scroll for hours through videos that do not match your interest. You control the feed quickly and easily.
This feature works almost like talking to the platform directly. You say what you want and the feed changes for you.
How this new feature could change user experience
If YouTube rolls this out to everyone, it can make the platform feel more personal and less random. Users will spend less time fighting the algorithm and more time watching what they like. This can make YouTube more enjoyable, more relaxing, and more useful.
Some changes we may see include:
- better video suggestions
- fewer one time videos taking over your feed
- more control for viewers
- more accurate content categories
- faster discovery of niche topics
- easier ways to fix mistakes in your watch history
This tool can also help creators. If users are searching for a specific topic, small creators who make niche content have a better chance of being discovered. It removes the heavy pressure of depending on the algorithm alone.
Why this update matters for many people
The home feed is the first thing users see when they open YouTube. If that page is filled with videos they do not like, it can ruin the whole experience. This new feature could solve that problem without forcing users to reset their watch history or create a new account.
People like to feel in control of what they see online. With Your Custom Feed, YouTube is giving power back to the viewer. This is something other platforms are also starting to do. Threads and X are both testing features that let users adjust their feeds with simple controls and prompts.
It looks like tech companies now understand that users want more say in what they see.
The Bottom Line
YouTube’s Your Custom Feed feature may seem small, but it is a big step in the right direction. It helps fix a problem that users have complained about for years. It gives more freedom, more clarity, and more choice. Instead of letting the algorithm decide everything, viewers can now guide their home feed with a simple prompt.
The feature is still in testing and not everyone has it yet. But if it becomes available to all users, it could make YouTube feel cleaner, smarter, and a lot more personal.
If you are tired of a messy home page, this update might be the change you have been waiting for.
Also Read:TikTok Now Lets You Choose How Much AI Generated Content You Want To See
