I discovered my YouTube viewing stats with this handy hidden feature
There's a feature hidden away in the settings for the YouTube app that gives you details of your viewing history.
Many tech journalists, even those who spend hours exploring gadgets and apps, may overlook a handy feature within YouTube's mobile app. This feature allows users to view how much time they've spent watching videos, both currently and over the past week, with an average for the last seven days. This time-tracking feature has been available for years and is accessible, regardless of whether users have a YouTube Premium subscription.
However, having Premium avoids extended periods of ads, something the reporter discovered by turning on Watch History. To activate Watch History, users must tap their profile picture, then the cog icon, and select "Manage all history." They can view their most recent video history, delete their entire history, or pause it entirely.
While there are benefits to having Watch History enabled, such as receiving videos related to one's interests and discovering new music, it also allows Google to track users' activities better and can make it easier to fall into recommendation loops. Users can access more comprehensive Watch History data through Google's Takeout service, where they can download a CSV file detailing every video they've watched.
The daily time spent watching videos is displayed on the YouTube app, but unfortunately, it is not available on the web version. Users can see their viewing statistics on the YouTube mobile app by tapping their profile avatar, then the cog icon, and selecting "Time management." Although the stats lack detailed breakdowns, they provide overall totals and the average time spent watching videos over the past week.
Users can also compare their current viewing habits with the previous week, allowing them to track changes in their consumption patterns. The reporter, who discovered she watches almost five hours a day on average, found these stats surprising, given her work as a tech journalist. Despite the large number of hours spent on YouTube, she believes the monthly fee for YouTube Premium justifies itself, as it allows her to enjoy an ad-free experience and watch various content, including tech reviews and explainer videos.
Written by urgent.news from TechRadar's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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