YouTube is testing smart notifications to help users avoid spam

YouTube developers have addressed a problem familiar to many active users of the platform: over time, the number of channels subscribed to grows, and notifications about new videos begin to arrive in such volumes that they become completely ineffective. In response, a significant portion of viewers simply turn off notifications entirely, risking missing out on truly interesting content.

Google specialists are proposing an elegant solution based on user behavior analysis. The new algorithm will track recent interactions with each channel, including actual views and visits. If it turns out that a subscriber hasn't visited a specific creator's page or watched their videos in a while, the system will automatically stop sending notifications about new publications from that source.

At the same time, the content itself will remain available: videos will remain available in the subscription feed, as well as in a separate internal notification feed in the mobile app. In this way, the platform aims to restore the balance between information accessibility and the psychological comfort of users, who currently often simply ignore all notifications due to their excessive number.

The new feature is currently being tested with a limited audience, and if successful, will be rolled out to all users worldwide. It's still unclear how accurately the algorithm will distinguish between a temporary drop in interest and a complete loss of connection to the channel, but the attempt to address the problem of notification spam is noteworthy.