YouTube is moving your subscriptions and handing you the feed controls

Despite its sophisticated algorithm, YouTube recommendations may not always match what you want to watch. You watch one cooking video, and YouTube will likely fill your feed with cooking tutorial recommendations. To give you more control over your feed, YouTube is now rolling out custom feeds alongside a revamped home tab for its mobile app.

You will soon see a new "+" icon at the top of your home feed in the YouTube mobile app. Tap on it, and you can describe the kind of topic, channels, or vibe you are looking for. YouTube will then automatically create a new feed tailored to your interests.

Even better, you won't be limited to one custom feed. You can have multiple feeds at the top of your screen, so you can easily switch between them depending on the mood you are in and the kind of content you want to watch.

It's also possible to refine an existing feed without creating another one. Open it and tap the prompt box at the top to change your request. Refreshing a custom feed generates another set of recommendations based on that prompt.

YouTube Premium subscribers can save up to 8 custom feeds, while non-premium account holders can have up to 3 active feeds. These feeds will also sync across your devices, including desktop.

Note that watching videos in a custom feed will still influence your regular Home recommendations.

Unused custom feeds automatically expire after 30 days of inactivity. They are also private, so you can't share your custom feed with friends or family.

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For now, Google says custom feeds on YouTube are rolling out only in English to users aged 13 or older in the US. You must also have both watch and search history enabled to try custom feeds. Google announced custom feeds for YouTube on desktop almost a month ago.

Custom feeds are not available on tablets just yet, and Google hasn’t announced when that will change.

Your subscriptions are moving into Home

Alongside custom feeds, YouTube is also revamping navigation and the Home tab in its mobile app. Dedicated feeds for Live, Music, and Movies & TV will appear at the top of Home, though Movies & TV will only appear there if you have a qualifying subscription like Primetime Channels or YouTube TV add-ons. This lets you jump straight to the type of content you want to watch.

More importantly, YouTube is moving the Subscriptions tab from the bottom navigation bar to Home’s top bar. It will appear as “Subs,” immediately after the Home feed.