YouTube will show you a blank page if your watch history is turned off

YouTube has a new feature where it will turn off its recommendations if your watch history is not turned on, and you will see a mostly blank page to help you search seamlessly.

This YouTube feature will change your homepage feed if your watch history is turned off. (Unsplash)

YouTube, as you know it, is going to change. If you are one of those who prefer to keep the watch history off, you may experience an entirely different homepage with no recommended videos, and mostly a blank interface. This feature is intended to enable users to search for the kind of content they want to watch and have easier access to the accounts that they subscribe. According to the video streaming giant, the feature is part of its ‘new viewer experience', and more features will be added in the future.

According to Google's blog post, this feature is currently being rolled out and users should start seeing it in the coming days. It stated, “Starting today, if you have YouTube watch history off and have no significant prior watch history, features that require watch history to provide video recommendations will be disabled – like your YouTube home feed…you'll be able to see the search bar and the left-hand guide menu, with no feed of recommended videos thus allowing you to more easily search, browse subscribed channels and explore Topic tabs instead”.

The post also mentioned that while the feature has begun rolling out, the process is slow and it will be a few months before everyone sees these changes.

YouTube to show blank page to those who have watch history turned off

There are two sides to this new update. On one hand, there are users who do not like to sift through 10+ suggested videos to find the videos they actually want to watch, who will find this new update a breath of fresh air. However, many do prefer these suggestions to discover new and related content. But now, if they do not let YouTube have access to their watch history, they will simply not see anything.

“We are launching this new experience to make it more clear which YouTube features rely on watch history to provide video recommendations and make it more streamlined for those of you who prefer to search rather than browse recommendations,” added Google.

In case you want to switch your watch history settings to either on or off, you can do so by going to Settings. However, some users have reported still seeing the recommendations despite turning off the history and removing the suggested videos from the home page. It is not certain how much time YouTube will take before the changes start to reflect.