What Is 'New to You' on YouTube and How Does It Work?

Since the very beginning, YouTube has been quite capable of recommending relevant videos. Now, with machine learning operating at its peak, the recommendation system has gotten even sharper, allowing you to explore different videos across the board.

To make exploration more fun, YouTube has introduced another neat, new feature, which would allow you to refresh your feed whenever you need it. So, without further ado, let’s check out what ‘New To You’ is and how it would help you find new recommendations.

What is ‘New to You’ on YouTube?

For mobile devices, ‘New to You’ is a new tab on the YouTube app that would allow you to get fresh recommendations, beyond the standard recommendations you get on the home screen. It only includes videos that you haven’t watched, allowing you to explore different categories.

The feature has been enabled through a server-side update on mobile devices. The feature can be availed through the computer — desktop browser — as well but it’s not as straightforward as the mobile client.

How does ‘New to You’ work?

Usually, the standard YouTube feed is quite capable of throwing a list of recommended videos at you. However, if you have been consuming YouTube regularly, your news feed might get a little boring, with older/already watched videos populating the primary feed more often than not.

‘New to You’ is a breath of fresh air in that respect — especially on your mobile device. The new recommendation system offers you videos that you haven’t seen yet, while also keeping your preferences in mind. It keeps track of your watch and search history, but widens the scope of recommendation, resulting in curated recommendations that are not identical to the stuff you already watch.

So, all in all, you get a nice recommendation system that not only keeps you interested but also doesn’t recommend stuff that is too wild for your liking.

Is ‘New to You’ personalized?

‘New to You’ is not as personalized as your regular explore feed, but there are elements that you will find familiar. For example, ‘New to You’ shows you videos that are in line with the stuff you generally watch. So, in that sense, it is personalized to an extent.

However, it doesn’t show you videos from channels you are already subscribed to. You get fresh videos from channels that might interest you, which can help your watchlist grow organically. It’s not as personalized as your Explore feed but feels a lot more targeted than the Discovery space.

Relevancy is a key term when it comes to ‘New to You,’ more so than personalization.

How to find ‘New to You’ on Mobile

If you are running the latest version of the YouTube app, you may have received the server-side update by now. To use the ‘New to You’ recommendation system, all you have to do is launch the YouTube app and go to your ‘Home’ tab.

At the top, on the right of the ‘Explore’ section, you should find the ‘New to You’ tab.

If you don’t swipe down to refresh the feed. Once you get the button, tap on it to explore the ‘New to You’ feed.

How to find ‘New to You’ on computer

Unlike the mobile app, ‘New to You’ doesn’t emerge as a tab on youtube.com. It presents itself when you reach the end or close to the end of your home feed without finding any video that you like. When it does, you will need to click on the ‘New to You’ button to start exploring.

If you have subscribed to thousands of channels over the course of your YouTube history, you might not even see the button appear on YouTube.

Why is your ‘New to You’ button not glowing?

When you have a new recommendation the ‘New to You’ tab would have a blue-magenta border around it. When you exhaust the list of recommendations, the tab stops glowing and resembles any other tab on the page. So, if your ‘New to You’ button seems ordinary and sits at the end of the top carousel, YouTube is just asking for a bit of time to catch up with you.

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