YouTube has been recommending us videos on our “Home” feed/page for years now. The platform is actually very good at it and more than often we tend to enjoy these recommendations. Although sometimes, it can get repetitive and this is what YouTube wants to tackle. Towards this endeavour, Youtube has brought a “New to you” section.
When you open the Youtube app on your mobile, the “New to you” icon will appear as a suggestion. This will be present in the top carousel below the app bar. You’ll find it after the default “All” view icon. Youtube has hued this icon in light rainbow colours which is a smart move to highlight the new feature.
Why a new option?
Tapping on the icon will take you to a feed of videos that are “beyond [your] typical recommendations.” Google explained earlier that it took feedback from YouTube’s users on how “their home feeds feel a little bit stale.”
The general response was that they used to come back every day to the same flavour of recommendations. This could be bettered and Google has now delivered. The “New to you” option will still give users a level of personalization. The content in this feed lets “viewers explore outside their typical recommendations.”
On your desktop, Google will be surfacing a similar prompt. This will be shown when you scroll down the homepage and can’t find anything to view yet. YouTube explains that this feed will be different from the Explore feed, which primarily focuses on specific genres, like gaming, beauty, and trending.
At the beginning of July, Google claimed that it would begin rolling out the update over the course of this month. Currently, several Android devices in the UK, America, and France are seeing the “New to you” option. And just in case there is nothing to recommend, it loses its colourful touches and moves to the end of the top carousel.
