YouTube Custom Feeds let eligible viewers save a description of what they want to watch and return to recommendations built around it. Free accounts can keep three feeds; Premium members can keep eight. Availability is currently limited to English in the United States, and watching through a custom feed can still influence your ordinary Home recommendations.
YouTube announced the feature at Made on YouTube on September 23, 2026. Android Authority reported the latest Home redesign on October 22, including easier access to saved feeds and subscriptions. The useful question now is how to use that control without confusing it with a private viewing session or a playlist.
How to create YouTube Custom Feeds
According to YouTube’s setup instructions, sign in, open Home and select Custom Feed at the top left on a computer. In the app, look for the plus button above the Home feed. Enter a description or choose a suggested prompt, then submit it.
Think about the situation you want the feed to serve. These are suggested starting prompts, not examples we have tested:
- “Beginner watercolor lessons with simple materials.”
- “Calm astronomy documentaries for an evening at home.”
- “Bicycle repair demonstrations for someone learning basic maintenance.”
Each describes a subject and a viewing need. If the results miss the mark, change one part of the description rather than replacing everything at once. For example, keep “bicycle repair” and add “puncture repair.” That makes it easier to judge whether your revision helped. A prompt is a request for recommendations, so review individual results before treating them as suitable instruction.
Why the option may be missing
Check eligibility before assuming your app is broken. YouTube requires a signed-in account, watch and search history switched on, and the device language set to English. Its documentation currently excludes tablets. Paying for Premium increases the number of saved feeds; it does not remove the stated country restriction.
For readers in Bangladesh, the US-only availability statement matters more than the subscription tier. The documentation does not announce a Bangladesh launch date. Changing a prompt cannot solve a regional availability restriction.
YouTube’s app navigation guide also says that pausing or disabling watch history hides feeds and the top bar. If you prefer to keep history off, weigh that preference before enabling it solely for this feature.
Private feeds still affect watch history
Other viewers cannot access your account’s custom feeds. However, videos watched there enter your standard watch history and may affect Home recommendations. Private access to the feed should therefore not be read as separation from your recommendation history.
For a practical example, imagine creating a temporary feed about a hobby while shopping for a gift. Before watching extensively, consider whether you want that interest reflected in subsequent recommendations. The important distinction is between who can open the saved feed and how your own viewing activity is used.
What happens when you edit, refresh or stop using a feed?
Select an existing feed and edit its prompt to change its direction. Refreshing generates another set of suggestions; it can retain some videos. After 30 days of inactivity, the prompt expires and the feed becomes unavailable. YouTube does not define precisely what counts as activity in these help pages.
Keep a separate note of a carefully written prompt if you expect to revisit a seasonal interest after a long break. Likewise, save individual videos you want to revisit instead of relying on a changing recommendation feed to preserve them.
Choosing between Home, Subs and a custom feed
Use Home for broad recommendations, Subs for new uploads from channels you follow, and a custom feed when you have a recurring topic or mood in mind. This is our practical reading of the different controls, not a promise about which videos will surface.
The feature concerns discovery rather than a new payout system: YouTube says resulting views contribute to creators’ watch time and monetization as usual. For another recommendation-control approach, see our Facebook Your Algorithm guide. For a separate YouTube discovery tool, read our Ask YouTube coverage.
Archival photo: YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California, August 9, 2010. © BrokenSphere / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0. Resized by WordPress; no other changes. This photograph does not show the Custom Feeds interface.
