I use it all the time since the main feed is full of fluff half the time.

I don't rely on it at all because it likes to omit things I assume it thinks I won't like. Plenty of times I'll see a new video from a subscribed creator on the home tab to head over to subscriptions where I can't find it but see previous ones.

If it worked that would be great, instead I use third party apps to manage it and would just stop using YouTube if those tools were unavailable.

I don't mind the YouTube algorithm cause at least I still have the choice. With TikTok or shorts I have to actively scroll to not watch something. So I let the algorithm give me new stuff on youtube, but it tends to focus on one or two areas at a time. So if I want to see more gardening in my feed I use my sub feed and watch a few gardening vids and presto old vids from channels I'm subbed to and new vids from new channels or cool one offs from the algorithm.

But I don't like my sub feed because I have such varied interests and moods I'm not interested in 60% of it at any one time.

My YT account is like 10 years old, so my subscribed tab is a mess.

Also, i like seeing what youtube throws at me cause the algorithm is actually quite good.

There was a period of time a few years ago (around whenever the bell was implemented, or perhaps caused the bell to be implemented) in which the subscription feed would often just not a show a video, or maybe it wouldn't show up until hours or even days later. I suspect for some people that made them suspicious of the subscription feed and more reliant on push notifications.

How else you are supposed to know when creator posts a video?

Too many subscriptions Not enough time

i've had the same thought as you.

i regularly use the sub tab. i watch youtube on weekends while i clean, so usually on friday i'll check my home page a few times throughout the day, see if there are any interesting recommendations and save them to my watch later.

then in the evening i do one more home page scroll, then i slowly scroll my subs page and make sure i save anything that looks interesting to my watch later. then i might watch one or two videos from my WL that evening and i watch the rest (or what i can fit in) over the weekend.

I don't get the point of subbing to a channel if you aren't checking your subs tab. Like....that's why it's there lol bc the home page is a bunch of recommendations

I don't use the subscriptions feed that much, i often just watch something i search for or something that was recomended to me. But i still don't want to get notifications from the channels i subscribe to, so i have notifications disabled for Youtube.

I still see how the notification bell can be useful for people that want to get notifications from some channels only.

Man, the bell doesn't even fuckin' notify me of new shit. That was the point of subscribing in the first place: So I don't have to come and check the channel for new content all the time. It would just fucking tell me.

How else can you use youtube??

I used to rely on it, but with live streams and shorts it now looks like a junkyard. Now that I've moved to Piped that has filtering by content type (videos, streams, shorts) I find myself using it again.

I use nothing but my subs feed. I don't have notifications on, because I don't really want any notifications. Also, I don't just watch random shit that algorithms throw at me, unless it's something interesting enough. I hate their algorithms with a passion. I also use the newpipe app more than than YouTube revanced, because it removes the algorithms effect on my home feed.

I use it. I have all notifications turned off, so that's how I keep up with my channels.

My theory for the apparent need of "click the bell for notifications" is not that videos don't show up in the subscription feed but that most people just use the home page to get informed which does not show all content. My subscription feed worked without a hitch and not a single missed video since it's inception. I strongly believe most people just don't know about the subscription feed.

On iOS iPad, the subscription feed doesn’t update/refresh after watching a video. The video remains in the queue (same place), with the red progress bar showing that it’s been watched or partially watched. Pulling down to refresh does nothing. Plus, I don’t want to watch every video from every subscription.

So instead, I use the algorithm in a way that benefits me. I let it suggest videos to watch until I feel it’s lost its way. Then I have to go and find videos from my primary interest to get the algorithm back on track.

I use the rss feeds, so much better.

I subscribe to a few news channels and my Subscription feed is absolutely overrun by them. There's new videos basically every few minutes. It is sadly useless for me so I need to rely on the algorithm.

I've found a new reason to use the subscribed page - it shows more videos per screen than the home screen, now that YouTube on Android TV has massively increased the preview panel to an absurd degree. There's barely any room for identifiers, just two or three video previews taking up the entire screen, like I've blown up a phone app on my TV. Wtf YouTube?

I feel like the main page though for Youtube now is essentially just a subscription feed. I watch a random video on any fucking topic, and suddenly either that channel or that topic DOMINATES my main page. My kids watch videos on my account and now my home page is just filled with crappy minecraft/roblox youtuber videos and non-sensical kid's videogame content. Like, is there an r/all version of Youtube where I can just see what videos are popular and trending with everybody? Sometimes I just want out of my small world of interests and just want to see what kind of trash everybody else is getting into. Or has society lost its collective mind and the same shit my kids are watching just so happens to be the same crap that the rest of the world is watching? I feel like I tend to see hyper-specific videos that likely only I watch on there though, and seeing other people's home pages I can tell that they're getting individualized feeds as well, so I don't think it just so happens that I'm culturally aligned with the rest of the world.