If you log out of YouTube, you will no longer receive video recommendations

When you go to YouTube, the main screen shows a number of recommendations. In most cases, people keep their accounts logged in using their local history, which gives them relevant videos. This does not happen when you visit the streaming platform without logging in. Now it looks like Google has finally stopped giving video recommendations to new, logged out users.

The YouTube homepage now shows a blank page and the message “Start trying search – Start watching videos to help us create your favorite video feed” when using it in an incognito browser or without an active login. Recognizing the change, Bleeping Computer noticed that after watching two or three movies, the website started to load with recommendations, the information of which was particularly suitable for what it was watching.

Some X users have noticed that those who have cleared their search and viewing history or have disabled their history settings do not receive recommendations when they log in. Some people believe that YouTube is confident about this and trying to get users to enable history settings.

However, this is not the first time YouTube has stopped showing suggestions to viewers who have disabled their watch history or are not signed in. The company made the adjustment in August of last year, but quickly changed its plan in response to consumer criticism.

The move may come as a relief to people who didn’t find arbitrary suggestions helpful, but it may not be appreciated by YouTube viewers who don’t want Google to know what they’re watching. In addition to this, viewers can create their own video suggestions from scratch.

Although the company has suspended submissions on the homepage, short videos in the “Shorts” category are still available. Additionally, there is a workaround that allows Google to continue showing video suggestions in the feed even if it has frozen them from users who are not signed in with a Google Account.

Try going to the Shorts page on YouTube (without a Google account signed in) and then explore other areas like You, Trending, and more. Now when you return to the home page, the suggestions should appear. However, it’s unclear how long this approach will last or whether Google will change its mind.