YouTube Will No Longer Recommend Videos If You Turn Off Watch History: How It Works – News18

If you use YouTube, you would be aware about how the platform recommends videos to you—and at times—users may not want to see recommended videos. Now, in a new announcement today—YouTube said that its latest update allows users to disable video recommendations if they turn their watch history off. 

“Starting today, if you have YouTube watch history off and have no significant prior watch history, features that require watch history to provide video recommendations will be disabled – like your YouTube home feed,” YouTube said. 

YouTube also notes that as a result of this change, users’ homepage “may look a lot different,” and that users will now be able to see the search bar and the left-hand guide menu, “with no feed of recommended videos, allowing you to more easily search, browse subscribed channels, and explore Topic tabs instead.”

As for the availability, YouTube stated that the feature to turn off watch history will be rolled out gradually to users over the next few months. This likely means that not all YouTube users will get to experience this change immediately.

How to Turn off YouTube Watch History:

1. Sign in to the Google account you use for YouTube.
2. Next, visit this link.
3. Now, scroll down and find ‘YouTube History.’
4. Click ‘Turn off.’ That is it. Your YouTube History is now off. 

YouTube has been making changes to its platform to benefit its viewers over the past few months. In June, the Google-owned company introduced a new policy for fan channels. This policy requires users who want to create or already run a fan channel to make it clear that their channel is not affiliated with the original creator, artist, or entity by choosing a channel name or handle that reflects this. These changes will go into effect later this month—on August 21, 2023.