YouTube is introducing the Custom Feeds feature for creating personalized feeds using Google's Gemini model
YouTube announced the Custom Feeds feature, which uses Google's Gemini model to create a personalized video feed based on a user's text description. The feed gets pinned to its own tab on the homepage. According to the company, the rollout to web and mobile is set to begin in October 2026.
At the Made On YouTube event, YouTube announced a new feature called Custom Feeds. It lets a user write into a text field a description of what type of videos they want to watch — for example, a feed of video podcasts for a half-hour train commute, or "soothing comment videos to unwind." According to YouTube, the feature uses Google's Gemini model, which assembles the feed based on the description. The resulting feed gets pinned to its own tab on the YouTube homepage and does not replace the original main recommendations feed.
According to Emily Moxley, Vice President of Product Management for the Viewer AI division, YouTube's database has over 20 billion videos, and the new feature is meant to help users navigate this volume of content more easily. Users will be able to create multiple custom feeds at the same time. According to the company, the rollout to web and mobile apps is set to begin in October 2026.
Similar tools for building a custom feed via a natural-language description have already been introduced by other social networks — Bluesky was the first to introduce this concept and this year added the AI tool Attie, which further simplifies feed creation. Meta's Threads and Instagram, the network X, and recently Spotify also have their own versions of feed-building features, often likewise powered by AI.
Why it matters
Users will gain the ability to directly describe what content they want to see, instead of relying solely on an opaque recommendation algorithm — giving them greater control over what YouTube shows them. For content creators and marketers, this means the emergence of an additional discoverability channel alongside the main algorithm, one they may need to respond to by adjusting how and for which keywords and topics they describe and tag their content.
Two audiences, two different impacts
What this means
For individuals
YouTube users will be able to have a custom video feed built for them by describing what they want to watch, instead of relying on generic recommendations.
For a business
YouTube content creators and marketers will gain a new discoverability channel that viewers build themselves via a text description instead of the main recommendation algorithm, which may affect existing strategies for optimizing for recommendations.
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Event sources
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