If you’re a big YouTube fan, you’ll notice there has been a lot going on lately. Between auto hiding of comments by default on Android devices and YouTube TV getting a new UI It’s safe to conclude that the in-house devs have been busy. Despite all that the latest feature to roll off the conveyor belt is a topic filter on the homepage of Android devices.
Appearing across the top of your screen, pill-shaped icons allow you to filter the videos that appear on your home page by topic. The topics that appear seem to be based on your watch history. You can scroll across the topics carousel-style, with your most popular topics appearing first. Google first announced this feature last month, but it’s finally widely rolling out.
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The feature will undoubtedly be a welcome addition for those who are sick of YouTube’s recommendation algorithms. It could be especially useful, for example, for someone who has just discovered a new hobby and wants to learn as much as they can about it. Filtering videos according to this new hobby could easily allow them to access a range of videos on the subject, without being limited by needing to search for the correct topic.
It’s a nice change, one that signals that perhaps YouTube is finally starting to recognize that users want to have control over what they see and/or what is recommended to them. We’ve seen content filters on YouTube before in their “Up Next” section, allowing users to filter autoplay videos by relation to video, recommended for you, and so on.
The feature is rolling out worldwide. Some have had it for longer than others, so don’t be too disappointed if you don’t see the feature just yet, it’s more than likely on the way
