Artificial Intelligence
YouTube adds custom homepage feeds
YouTube introduced a Custom Feeds button that uses large language models to build and save personalised homepage video feeds, with a wider rollout planned for US users.
- Google announced Custom Feeds at YouTube’s event on Wednesday.
- The feature let users enter a prompt and used large language models to build a personalised home page feed that could be saved.
- YouTube said it had tested the feature earlier this year and planned to roll it out soon to users in the United States on mobile, desktop and TV.
- Emily Moxley said users wanted more control over recommendations and a natural-language way to steer them.
Google announced Custom Feeds at YouTube’s event on Wednesday. The feature let people type a request below the search bar, and the service used large language models to build a home page feed that could be saved.
YouTube said it had tested the feature earlier in the year and planned to offer it soon to users in the United States across mobile, desktop and television. Emily Moxley, its vice president of product management, said people wanted more control over recommendations and a natural-language way to guide them.
The article said the tool sat alongside existing topic tabs and did not replace the usual home page, which remained available through the All option. It also said YouTube had tried a more direct recommendation-control feature but chose not to release it because users were uneasy about changing the system.
The piece placed the launch within a wider pattern of platforms exposing some recommendation controls through generative AI. It said Meta had launched Your Algorithm on Instagram and Spotify had released Prompted Playlists.
Named in this story
People
- Emily Moxley
- said users wanted more control over recommendations
Companies
- YouTube
- released Custom Feeds and planned a US rollout
- announced the feature at the Made on YouTube event
- Meta
- launched a similar recommendation-control feature
- Spotify
- released Prompted Playlists
Products and systems
- Ask YouTube
- was expanded as a chatbot-style search tool
- hosted Meta’s Your Algorithm feature
- Your Algorithm
- let Instagram users adjust what posts they saw
- Prompted Playlists
- let Spotify users customise listening recommendations
How the source tells it
The piece was conversational and lightly promotional, mixing a personal demonstration with YouTube’s own claims about control and convenience.
- playful enthusiasm first-person anecdote and approving asides about the generated feed
- vendor boosterism the company’s product claims were repeated through direct quotation and favourable framing