YouTube has announced a new feature allowing users to construct their own video recommendation feeds using text prompts. The company introduced custom feeds on Wednesday, enabling viewers to describe in their own words the specific types of content they wish to see.
To set one up, you type a description into a prompt box on the platform. You might request a feed of video podcasts for a 30-minute train commute or ask for relaxing commentary videos to unwind with. YouTube suggests these options as examples of how to use the tool.
The system uses Google’s Gemini AI model to build the feed based on your request. The resulting feed pins to the top of your YouTube home page in its own tab. Because the process relies on artificial intelligence, you can describe your preferences in lengthy terms. You can specify detailed information about how you want to curate the feed, what it should feature or exclude, and what content to prioritise.
YouTube’s move follows similar actions by other social networks that have created tools allowing users to build their own algorithms by describing what they want their feed to include and how to present that information.
Decentralised social network Bluesky began popularising this idea years ago as a way to differentiate its service from rivals like X. This year, it rolled out an AI tool called Attie to make feed-building easier. Other services, including Meta’s Threads, Instagram, X, and more recently Spotify, have also launched their own feed-building features, many of which are AI-powered.
YouTube believes custom feeds will help users explore the vast number of videos now hosted on its platform.
“One of the amazing things about being on YouTube is that the world is always at your fingertips,” said Emily Moxley, VP of Product Management for Viewer AI, in a pre-brief with reporters ahead of the Made On YouTube event on Wednesday, where custom feeds were introduced to the public. “There’s over 20 billion videos in the YouTube corpus, so you’re always one search away from a treasure trove of topics.”
The new feeds will not replace YouTube’s main feed, which features all your recommendations. Instead, you will be able to easily hop right into whichever feed best suits your purposes when you open the YouTube app.
Support for creating multiple custom feeds will roll out across YouTube on web and mobile, starting next month, the company said.
What it means
For people making things, this change shifts the burden of discovery from the platform’s centralised algorithm to the individual. Creators no longer rely solely on the default recommendation engine to find their audience; viewers can now explicitly define their own consumption habits. This allows a user to curate a specific mood or activity-based feed, such as a commute playlist, without cluttering their main homepage with unrelated suggestions.
