All said and done; YouTube seems to be working hard to make things relevant to the users. In the recent past, they have been working on improving content discovery, and YouTube Recommendations is an integral part. While the recommendations might help you stumble upon new and interesting content, it is also intrusive, to say the least. I have run into trouble with YouTube Recommendations many times. The suggestions are often ludicrous and show uninteresting content. Furthermore, this will also spoil the user experience. In this article, we will help you deduce and deal with YouTube recommendations.
Stop YouTube Recommendations
We will discuss four methods by which you can turn off suggested YouTube videos:
1] Reset YouTube Recommendations
Despite running into problems, YouTube recommendations have their advantages. The feature has helped me discover some new and exciting content in the past. As a first step, we will reset the YouTube recommendations and see if it works. The YouTube Recommendations works by taking into account search history and watch history. So let us start by resetting both the parameters,
Delete YouTube Search HistoryClick on your account name on the top barClick on Video Manager (YouTube Studio Beta)Select Clear all search history and Pause search history
Once you have paused the search history, the algorithm will stop basing the suggestions on the search. After clearing the search history and pausing the search history, you will notice that YouTube will start suggesting trending content. The new recommendations/suggestions are usually spot on and will help you with content discovery. You can simply toggle on the “search history” to get back the feature. Since you have already deleted the watch history, YouTube will not have access to your watching habit. In other words, it’s like starting a new YouTube account with a clean slate!
2] Delete YouTube watch history
Deleting YouTube watch history is pretty straightforward. All you need to do is go to the sidebar and click on Watch History. Lastly, you need to click on Clear all watch history.
3] Remove YouTube Recommendations completely
In the previous section, we explained how you could fine-tune YouTube recommendations to serve your purpose. I prefer ditching YouTube Recommendations in favor of more screen real estate.
The best way to remove YouTube recommendations would be to use a Chrome browser extension called YouTube Options. This tool is super useful and helps you to hide anything from header, title, description, video suggestions, footer, and much other stuff. Additionally, I would also suggest clearing the cache and temporary files every once in a while.
4] Tips for clutter-free YouTube
There are many ways in which you can improve viewing experience on YouTube. You can always clear your history or watch stuff using incognito mode. As explained earlier one of the best option would be to use extensions that help you hide the stuff that you don’t want to see. The YouTube Cinema mode is yet another way of enhancing your viewing experience. Any other ideas? TIP: These browser extensions will help improve YouTube Streaming & Experience.
