YouTube says it will be able to build its own algorithms. Well, something like that. The company on Wednesday announced a new feature called Custom Feed that lets you describe in your own words the types of videos you want YouTube to recommend.
To create a feed, whether it’s focused on a particular interest or useful for other purposes, enter a description of what you’d like your feed to be like in YouTube’s prompt box. For example, YouTube suggests you can create a feed of video podcasts that you can watch during your 30-minute train commute, or request videos tailored to a specific mood, such as “relaxing explainer videos to unwind.”
The prompt-based feature leverages Google’s Gemini AI model to build a feed based on your request, and the resulting feed is pinned to a dedicated tab at the top of the YouTube homepage. Feed creation is powered by AI, so you can write long requests to share detailed information about how you want to curate your feed, what to include or exclude from your feed, what content to prioritize, and more.
The addition follows similar moves by a number of other social networks that have developed tools that allow users to essentially build their own algorithms by describing what they want included in their feeds and how they want that information to be displayed.
Decentralized social network Bluesky started promoting the idea several years ago as a way to differentiate its service from rivals like X. This year, the company rolled out Attie, an AI tool that makes building feeds even easier. Other services like Meta’s Threads, Instagram, X, and more recently Spotify have also launched their own feed-building features, many of which are powered by AI.
YouTube believes custom feeds will allow users to better explore the vast number of videos currently hosted on its platform.
“One of the great things about being on YouTube is that the world has instant access all the time,” said Emily Moxley, vice president of product management at Audience AI, in a pre-conference with reporters ahead of Wednesday’s Made On YouTube event, where the custom feed was made available to the public. “With over 20 billion videos in the YouTube corpus, you can always access a treasure trove of topics with a single search.”
However, the new feed doesn’t replace YouTube’s main feed, which features all of your recommendations. Instead, when you open the YouTube app, you’ll have easy access to the feed that best fits your needs.
Support for creating multiple custom feeds will roll out across YouTube on web and mobile starting next month, the company said.
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