This update might be a welcomed sight for users who are tired of YouTube's suggested content. If you deactivate your YouTube viewing history, you'll be greeted by an empty homepage.
YouTube brought this alteration into effect Tuesday to emphasize what features rely on viewing history for custom video suggestions and to simplify the process for users who prefer searching over browsing suggestions.
YouTube has a vested interest in suggesting videos to sustain your engagement. For a majority of viewers, these suggestions introduce them to fresh content creators. However, you might find yourself binge-watching content out of disdain, forced to view tedious clips for work, or watching clips you'd rather keep detached from your Google account. That's where disabling your viewing history can be beneficial, a fact even YouTube concedes.
When viewers choose to halt watch history, they will encounter a significantly blank homepage upon accessing YouTube. This functionality is being gradually rolled out over the forthcoming months and may not have arrived at your account yet.
You have the freedom to enable or disable search history based on your preference. By navigating to the "Activity controls" within your Google account, select "Turn off" under the YouTube History setting. This will prompt the site to discontinue tracking your video views and where you left off on a specific video. This setting also offers an auto-delete option to erase your YouTube history after defined periods of either three, 18, or 36 months.
Moreover, this setting enables you to remove specific videos from your history. Suppose you were in a phase of watching videos on mac-and-cheese recipes and now cannot seem to cleanse your recommendations of them. By deleting older videos from your history, you can finally rid your recommendations of such content.
