YouTube's notification test impacts channels you rarely interact with

What you need to know

• YouTube is beginning a notification test that will impact users who've selected to receive "All" alerts from channels.
• The platform states if a user hasn't engaged with that channel "recently," it will no longer push notifications to them to avoid further issues.
• YouTube ran a limited test earlier in February for Premium users, giving them 4x watch speed, while it rolled out more radio station customization options in YouTube Music.

YouTube is kickstarting a new test on the platform that focuses on how its notifications interact with users and channel creators.

The platform updated its experiment changelog recently, stating it's playtesting a revamped "notifications experience" (via Android Police). YouTube states it's trying to reduce the number of times users "turn off all notifications" from the platform within Settings, instead of changing the specific channel's behavior. Users are reportedly more likely to do this when overwhelmed with notifications. To solve this, YouTube says its test involves users who've selected "All" notifications for any given channel.

Specifically, the app will not push a notification to you, despite the "All" option selected, if you haven't interacted with that channel "recently." The test will still make those newly uploaded video notifications available via the bell icon in the app, but they won't appear on your phone as an alert.

Additionally, YouTube is testing this notification change for channels that "upload infrequently."

The test started this week, but the platform doesn't say how far the experiment will go. So, some users may notice this as we end the week, while others may not.

YouTube offers three types of notification settings for channels: All, Personalized, and None. The latter is self-explanatory; however, "All" notifications lets you know everything uploaded by that channel. This involves regular videos, streams, and Shorts. "Personalized" restricts that slightly. The secondary option will alert you about "some" uploads, but YouTube states it uses your interactions with that channel to determine what it should inform you about.

Regarding experiments, YouTube highlighted one in February that lets Premium users test watching videos at 4x speed. It was a limited test run as the platform only made it available for Premium users until February 26. That same test included more for the Jump Ahead feature, which “enables viewers to get to the content they care about faster.”

Elsewhere, YouTube Music's "Ask Music" picks up extra support for more personalized radio stations. Users can tweak their custom channels with written or voice prompts. Additionally, the company will offer a few suggested prompts like "just jazz songs" or "only female vocals."