YouTube is testing a new tool that could solve one of the platform’s biggest user headaches: getting spammed with recommendations after watching a single video you didn’t actually care about.
If you’ve ever clicked on an oddly specific clip and instantly regretted it, you know the pain. One chess video turns your homepage into a wall of endgame breakdowns and chess clips. One bodycam clip triggers a flood of true-crime thumbnails.
YouTube’s algorithm has long been notorious for overcorrecting, resurfacing videos repeatedly, or assuming you’ve found a brand-new lifelong interest.
Now YouTube says it’s testing “Your Custom Feed,” an experimental feature that lets you directly reshape your recommendations.
YouTube’s “Your Custom Feed” lets you be the algorithm
According to Google, users selected for the test will see a new “Your Custom Feed” chip appear beside “Home.” Clicking it opens a simple AI prompt box where you can type what you actually want to see.
You can tell YouTube to “show me less MrBeast” or “more content about Dispatch,” and the platform will update your entire Home feed based on that command.
“This feature is designed to give you an easy-to-use way to have more control over your suggested content,” the Google-owned platform explained. “If you see it, check it out and share your feedback.”
It’s a rare move toward transparency for YouTube’s recommendation engine, which has been widely criticized for being unpredictable, repetitive, or downright chaotic.
“Your Custom Feed” isn’t the only experiment currently in the works. YouTube recently began testing the return of direct messages, six years after shutting the feature down, but for now, it’s only available in Ireland and Poland.
If rolled out widely, the new customization tool could be one of the biggest quality-of-life updates YouTube has shipped in years.
