YouTube announced the “custom feeds” feature, which will allow users to create their own recommendation feeds with the help of artificial intelligence. Users will be able to write the topics, moods, priorities and content to be excluded from the videos they want to watch in their own words in a prompt box. Google’s Gemini model will prepare a feed based on this description, and the feed will be pinned in a separate tab at the top of the YouTube homepage.
The company said the feature could be used for requests such as video podcasts that can be watched during a 30-minute train journey or relaxing commentary videos. YouTube’s main recommendation feed will not be removed; users will be able to switch between custom feeds suited to their goals within the app.
Emily Moxley, YouTube’s Vice President of Product Management, said there are more than 20 billion videos on the platform. The company believes custom feeds will make it easier to explore this vast content archive. Support for creating multiple custom feeds will become available on the web and mobile starting next month.
Platforms that use similar feed-creation tools include:
- Bluesky: It popularized the idea of custom algorithms years ago and launched an artificial intelligence tool called Attie this year.
- Meta’s Threads
- X
- Spotify
Some of the tools on these platforms also operate with artificial intelligence support.
Why it matters
This feature moves content discovery on YouTube from a single general recommendation experience to multiple viewing setups that can be built for different purposes. From the user’s perspective, the change is not limited to specifying interests; it offers the ability to place recommendations in a personal context by combining mood, priorities, and exclusion criteria in a single request. Alongside similar tools seen on Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, X, and Spotify, this approach shows that users are gaining more control over personalization in recommendation systems. YouTube’s decision to retain the main feed means the new setup will add options alongside existing usage patterns rather than eliminate them. The open question is how accurately Gemini will turn users’ different criteria into relevant feeds and how easily users will be able to switch between those feeds.
Background
YouTube is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 13 reports mentioning it in the past 90 days; the latest is dated October 3, 2026.