YouTube is ruining the Subscriptions section with a new test

YouTube often likes to run experiments on its platform. Sometimes these tests seem logical, like when YouTube tried to find a way to prevent ads from interrupting the livestream you’re watching. Other times, they can be baffling, making you wonder why anyone would think this is a good idea. YouTube appears to be running a new experiment that lands on the latter.

Previously, when you navigated to the Subscriptions section on YouTube in the TV app, you would see a carousel of recommendations in the top row. These are videos from creators you follow that could have been uploaded in the last few minutes or last few days. Immediately below the top row, you would be able to browse through a chronological list of content from the channels you follow. In YouTube’s most recent experiment, this is no longer the case.

If you’re part of this test, you will no longer see recommendations in the top row. This carousel has been replaced by a block of recommendations. After the recommendations, you’ll see a block of live streams, followed by a carousel of Shorts. You now have to get past all of this before you can access your chronological list of content. To help explain what’s going on, you can check out the clip above.

We’re not just seeing this experiment on our devices. We’ve found reports from a couple of Reddit (1,2) users who also appear to be experiencing the same situation.

It appears that this experiment is only running on the YouTube app for TV. We have yet to find any reports of this experiment on desktop or mobile.