YouTube is testing a new video button on its app, allowing users to easily access random Shorts content based on their suggestions.
Additional features of this play button are currently unknown, but it is likely to pull content based on watch history, subscribed creators, and video likes.
The feature is being tested with a limited number of people and does not appear to be part of an official YouTube experiment.
And it's fairly obvious how that would work here. The videos won't be "random", they'll specifically be videos that are known to keep people on the platform longer.
They can control your watch time better if you make less decisions. Just be a good little brainless consumer and scroll through endless amounts of bullshit instead of specifically finding one video, then doing something else.
It started with autoplay, wormed it's way into search feature, and now it's all over home and subscriptions.
The day I have so little will to get off my ass that I need to hit a button made by youtube to force feed me random entertainment is the day someone needs to forcibly take my internet connection away from me.
As someone with my watch history off, it’ll be interesting if this button even shows.
I have no subscriptions, no history, and no tracking of any kind enabled. If this shows a recommendation related to my watch history, that’d shine a light on what those privacy controls really do.
Random? Yeah, I don't think so. I've seen the absolute garbage YT's algorithm tries to smear in front of my eyes - I enter YT through a bookmark so I can avoid having to see that crap.