YouTube users have long experienced a love-hate relationship with the platform’s recommendation system. One simple video click — a car review or true-crime clip — can transform your homepage into an endless stream of related content. This familiar frustration might soon have a solution, as YouTube is testing a new feature designed to help you take control of what appears on your feed.
Anyone who has fallen down a YouTube rabbit hole knows how relentless the cycle can be. The current recommendation model tends to overemphasize recent activity, turning a passing interest into a full-blown content obsession. YouTube’s new “interest selection” feature could bring relief by allowing users to specify topics they genuinely care about.
This new system aims to:
The goal is a smarter, more balanced recommendation loop — one that serves user intent rather than magnifying momentary curiosity.
Currently, the option to manually select interests is in a limited test phase. According to reports, a small sample of users is exploring how the feature reshapes their viewing experience. There’s no confirmed timeframe for a broader release, but a successful test could lead to a wider rollout in the coming months.
This experiment also fits into YouTube’s larger push to grant users more control over what they see. It addresses ongoing feedback about cluttered feeds, repeated suggestions, and irrelevant content — even among Premium subscribers who expect an optimized experience.
YouTube’s recommendation algorithm stands among the most influential on the internet, determining what billions of viewers encounter every day. Yet, for all its reach, it has often lacked transparency. By giving users tools to steer the experience directly, YouTube acknowledges that personalization should be a shared effort between human preference and machine learning.
If this initiative succeeds, YouTube could move from a system of automated chance to one of curated intent — less algorithmic roulette, more purposeful exploration. In other words, a platform that feels not just reactive, but truly personal.
Given the choice, would you take control of your own feed — or keep trusting the algorithm to figure you out eventually?