I consistently hear people on YouTube complain that the subscribe button doesn’t do anything for viewers, now that channel notifications are controlled by the bell. But it does do something: it puts the videos from that channel in your subscription feed, which is readily accessible on all versions of YouTube. So why do people act like it doesn’t exist? I think it’s super convenient, especially if you’re subscribed to a ton of channels and don’t want your notifications feed flooded with new videos.
I had no idea people didn’t use the subscription fees. It’s the only way I engage with YouTube
My interaction with YouTube is pretty much the search bar at the top. I generally only go to YouTube when there is something specific that I want to watch/listen to: a specific song or video, etc. So there’s little reason for me to subscribe to anything.
If you block enough channels the default suggestions aren’t bad at all. I found a few channels I wouldn’t have known about that way.
That said, I spend about a minute looking at the suggestions and then dip to my subscriptions page.
Have an extension just to automatically redirect to my subscription page the moment i type in the youtube homepage. I haven’t seen the youtube front page in almost a decade and it is so worth it.
removed by mod
I’ll never be interested in shorts type videos and would like the general view 30 day removal of shorts to also apply to the subscription view. It seems like bad design to only have the removal apply to the general view.
About the shorts part, IIRC at first it didn’t separate them, so they were intermingled. That was a pretty big pain in the ass.
Now that they just have their own section, I fully agree.
I use it to catch up on the latest vids from account im following. Occasionally I’ll also browse the algorithm feed as well.
I don’t mind the YouTube algorithm cause at least I still have the choice. With TikTok or shorts I have to actively scroll to not watch something. So I let the algorithm give me new stuff on youtube, but it tends to focus on one or two areas at a time. So if I want to see more gardening in my feed I use my sub feed and watch a few gardening vids and presto old vids from channels I’m subbed to and new vids from new channels or cool one offs from the algorithm.
But I don’t like my sub feed because I have such varied interests and moods I’m not interested in 60% of it at any one time.
I use it consistently. I, however, do not like the shorts panel taking up a ton of space in the feed now. My subs feed shouldn’t have shorts from people I am not subscribed to, but it does.
You can filter them out with uBlock Origin.
As soon as I noticed this, I immediately grabbed a userscript that removes it. It’s incredible how much screen they managed to waste with the shorts display
I don’t rely on it at all because it likes to omit things I assume it thinks I won’t like. Plenty of times I’ll see a new video from a subscribed creator on the home tab to head over to subscriptions where I can’t find it but see previous ones.
If it worked that would be great, instead I use third party apps to manage it and would just stop using YouTube if those tools were unavailable.
Yeah, I always use the sub feed but it’s a mess. It’s about as good as the Facebook feed for finding new videos from channels I’ve subscribed to.
Use newpipe or simmlar, or a list of channel links to check back on every so often
Newpipe or some of the other clients like it fetch youtube for channel data directly and aggrogate into a feed on your computer, verry clean way of doing it. Channel uploads by date is the last thing not AI controlled
Wait…. Thats not how people use YouTube? I browse almost exclusively from my subscriptions page.
Same, the front page is a scary place and god help your soul if you click on trending
Default front page yes. Customized with my data, no not really
Agreed, I have some custom ad block rules that remove videos I already watched. That removes about half of the videos on the page, but it helps a lot not showing nonsense.
Yes YouTube, that video is perfect for me, I really like the creator, I like the subject, the video is well made with a good length. That’s all of the reasons I chose to watch it yesterday, I don’t need to watch it a second time. If I did wanted to watch it for a second time, I know where to find it, you don’t have to present it to me.
i have a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory that youtube intentionally shittifies the frontpage if you disable your watch history as an attempt to make you turn it back on.
Really? For me the front page hits almost spot on on what I want to watch. Weird. I use subscriptions tab first and then when im done with it I move to feed to watch new stuff I might not know and almost all of them are interesting.
I swear people does not use the “I dislike this content” or whatever it’s called button from the triple dot panel.
Dude I’ve had that exact same thought. Like, yeah, the subscription is where everything is. I never use the regular home page, my bookmark for YouTube goes to my subscription.
There’s zero need for me to use the bell. I never understood why people complained about videos not showing up, etc.
TIL
I’ll admit it lol
I very much use the subscription feed. I don’t know how alone I am with this, but I usually only subscribe to channels when I want to watch almost all videos they post.
A lot of the time if a creator gets a little bit popular they start to spam videos and that’s when I unsubscribe, even if I generally like their content. I feel like I cannot ever keep up anymore so I just watch their videos sporadically from then on.
I get too many Notifs from the YouTube app for channels I don’t want. I use Newpipe Subscriptions, I can refresh feeds from multiple channels whenever I choose.
Are you aware that you can fine tune notifications on YouTube app? I don’t get any notification that I don’t want. Actually, I get none.
But with newpipe you can have your subscription feed without a Google account.
That alone is a pretty damn good perk if you as me.
deleted by creator
Same here. I feel like the algorithm does a pretty good jos at recommending what I’m interested in. Including videos from the channels I’m subscribed to
I use the suscription feed, when I’m no longer interested in a channel I unsub and move it to my bookmarks so that I can keep track of it if I want to check it or even sub again for some reason. This way I have 2 feeds: a slow one (subscription feed) which I check daily and the home feed where the algorithm might recommend me something interesting if I want something else to watch. I might check that one many times a day or sometimes not check it for weeks or even months at a time.
I sometimes also unsub from channels I would like to keep being subbed too but they are just too spammy (e.g. Northernlion would just clutter my sub feed so I moved him to bookmarks and I still check him a couple of times a week).
As for the bell I don’t use it because I don’t like notifications for most things.
Same here, except my account is from 2006, so yeah, I’m subscribed to people that I haven’t watched in like a decade or more and I’m too lazy to just go and unsubscribe.
I almost exclusively use the subscription feed. The front page is a mess of terrible recommendations on videos I have no interest in watching.
I use it, but I loathe having to scroll past random text posts, pics, and shorts before getting to content I actually subscribe to.
I am often on the home page and complaining, this advice helped me. Thank you.
I use the subscription feed and it’s how I’ve always used YouTube. I certainly don’t want it giving me random notifications. It’s not like I need to drop what I’m doing during the day just because someone published a video. When I want to watch videos, I’ll go check my subscriptions.
There’s a YouTube setting to send you a digest each day instead of each bell as a notification.
I’ve like newpipe because it’s just a clean experience of only my subscription feed. I’ve hated any page other than subscription on YouTube, since I can’t even stand most of the thumbnails and I don’t endlessly use YouTube. Don’t even check out most of the videos in my own feed, so don’t need all the additional clutter YouTube shows now days.
If you want a desktop experience, I recommend the Unhook extension/addon for major browsers.
Agreed. In my mind every notification is a chore to be dealt with, and I’m not going to let Youtube assign me chores.
I turned off notifications for everything outside text messages a couple of years ago and I could physically feel the anxiety going away. I hate this trend of notifications for the smallest things.
Ping.
Reverify our distance to target.
One ping only
This. There is no way in hell I would want to be notified of a YouTube video dropping. I’ll watch when I want to watch, and it’s always the subscription feed that I go for. I will scroll back to the previous spot that I had watched and go through the feed from there to see if there is anything worth watching. If no one has posted for awhile and there is nothing new to watch in my subscription feed, then I’ll go to the Home feed and look at recommened videos, but 90% of the time I’m only going to check the subscription feeds.
ReVanced Manager on mobile, and SmartTubeNext on my TVs.
