Signed Out Of YouTube? You Won't Get Video Recommendations Anymore

Last Updated: March 13, 2024, 10:42 IST

Delhi, India

When you go to YouTube, the main screen displays a plethora of recommendations. In most cases, people keep their account signed in with their local history, which gives them relevant videos. That doesn’t happen when you visit the streaming platform without logging in. It now appears that Google has finally ceased giving any video recommendations to new, logged-out users.

The YouTube homepage now displays an empty page and the message, “Try searching to get started — Start watching videos to help us build a feed of videos you’ll love,” when you access it through an incognito browser or without an active login. Bleeping Computer, which identified the change, noticed that after watching two to three movies, the webpage began to load with recommendations, with information particularly matched to what they were looking at.

Some users on X have noticed that while signing in, those who have cleared their search and watch history or disabled their history settings do not get any recommendations. Some individuals believe YouTube is being assertive about this, attempting to get users to enable their history settings.

But this isn’t the first time YouTube has ceased displaying suggestions to viewers who have disabled their viewing history or aren’t logged in. The corporation made the adjustment in August of last year, but it rapidly changed its plan of action in response to consumer criticism.

The move could come as a relief to individuals who didn’t find the arbitrary suggestions helpful, but it might not be appreciated by YouTube viewers who don’t want Google to know what they are viewing. Furthermore, this may allow viewers to create their own video suggestions from scratch.

While the company has suspended suggestions on the Home page, short videos in the ‘Shorts’ category remain accessible. Furthermore, there’s a workaround that allows Google to resume showing video suggestions in the feed even if it has suspended them for users who aren’t logged in with a Google account.

Try going to the Shorts page on YouTube’s website (without having a Google account signed in) and then exploring the other areas, such as You, Trending and more. Now when you return to the Home page, suggestions ought to appear. It’s unclear, though, how long this approach will last or whether Google will change its mind.