As of Sept. 20, 2026, I am pissed. Why am I pissed? Because apparently for the past few months, YouTube has been rolling out a beta to random users that REMOVES the subscription button from the bottom tab of buttons, making it frustrating to find my favorite channels.
As of the 21st, it has been revoked. But I still want to rant about the changes YouTube has gone through, and my own opinions.
I don’t need to explain this to you 🫵. You 🫵 use YouTube. It’s in the name. When I type youtube on my phone it auto corrects to YouTube. But for the uninitiated: what do you 🫵 do on YouTube? Well, you 🫵 watch videos from channels made by people just like you 🫵. Or, you 🫵 create videos for others to watch on your channel. And if you 🫵 like a specific channel, they tell YOU 🫵 TO LIKE 👍 AND SUBSCRIBE ✅ TO THE CHANNEL, so that YOU 🫵 can be made aware of when that channel posts a new video. You 🫵 can ring that bell 🔔to get notifications, but the most common form of keeping up with those creators is by subscribing ✅.
I always imagined YouTube to be akin to a literal naming scheme: it’s a tube for you. You choose what goes through, and what doesn’t. You can also send things through the tube to others and see if they like it to request getting sent more. That ‘sending through the tube’ is seen specifically through the actual functions of the websites.
The home page, based on what you like or dislike, will bring targeted videos to your attention, as well as generally popular ones.
Remember the trending tab? I do. That was nice. Now it’s just smooshed in with the rest of the categories, unspecified but now directed more as a genre rather than a factor of the website. OH NEVER MIND I FORGOT THEY ALREADY DID THAT. No general trending, now it’s category specific ONLY. That’s fine I guess. Feels very marketing-y like, but YouTube has been a business for a while. We know this.
Shorts: I like RealRealJapan. I don’t like shorts. It’s disheartening when I open YouTube and it auto places me there. I’m not here for shorts. I’m here for my subscriptions.
Create Tab: Bro is trying (and kind of forcing other creators to use the function to become more popular) and succeeding to become short form content farms. On one hand, it’s more content and creativity, on the other hand, it’s also pushing AI tools to make editing easier, even though editing is part of the creation process. Trying to make EVERYTHING easy takes all the fun out of overcoming a challenge. The blood, sweat, and tears are sweet at the end of the road, because you are now stronger because of it.
I love YouTube. I’ve used it forever and I’ve been inspired, entertained, moved, and endless other adjectives countless times before. But as it actively gets in my way of enjoying content, I get more and more tired.
