YouTube has been in the news these days for good, bad, and relatively middling reasons. Putting aside all the controversies, the app is now trying something new that affects its most important element: the Home page. On Android, some users have started seeing topic filters that let them focus their feed on one subject at a time, thus getting rid of all superfluous recommendations and unwanted content.

The change is showing up server-side and seems to be limited in its rollout as we couldn’t replicate it on our devices. It introduces topic bubbles on top of the Home page, with the first one being the regular feed with all your interests, while the others are separate subjects. These veer from the super specific like “Honest Trailers,” for example, to the very general like “Computers.” Tapping on one cleans up the home page and shows only videos that are relevant to the picked subject. That should make the YouTube Home tab more interesting to browse, especially for those who, like me, have all but given up on it and prefer to go straight to their subscriptions.

The change is showing up for both Premium and non-Premium subscribers, so it looks like this won’t be a paid feature, but one accessible to all. It isn’t the first time we see filters on YouTube either, with users having spotted them in the Up Next queue earlier. Perhaps this is a sign that Google is starting to realize users should be able to have better and more pertinent recommendations, as well as more control over what they see.

YouTube
YouTube
  • Thanks:
  • Nikhil Anilkumar,
  • Spencer