How To Filter YouTube Subscriptions On iOS

The YouTube app on iOS is getting an upgraded Subscription tab that should make it even easier to keep up with your favourite channels.

The redesigned Subscription tab now displays creator Stories (the YouTube equivalent of Snapchat or Instagram story posts) at the top of the Subscriptions page. Under that, you’ll find all recent uploads and a new swipe-able menu that lets you swap between six different filters. The default setting, “All,” shows all videos and posts from all channels listed in reverse chronological order. The other five include:

• Today (only shows videos uploaded in the last 24 hours).

• Continue Watching

• Unwatched

• Live

• A “Posts” tab for viewing the recent text/image posts from creators you follow, which is helpful since these can sometimes get lost among the stream of recent video uploads.

Google is notorious for adding new buttons, tabs, and filters to YouTube that are supposed to help you find stuff to watch but often just add extra barriers between creators and their audience. That said, I can see myself actually using these new subscription filters.

If you’re like me, you primarily use the Subscription tab instead of the ever-changing Home tab; it’s the best way to see all the latest uploads from the channels you already follow. However, unless you’re making diligent use of the “Watch Later” feature, it’s still easy to lose track of what you have and haven’t watched, so I’m eager to check out the new filters.

Hopefully this Subscription page redesign rolls out to Android and desktop soon, too, but iOS users should have access to it today. You probably even have it right now—just open up YouTube on your iPhone or iPad and tap “Subscriptions” to check. If not, try updating the iOS YouTube app through the App Store.