YouTube’s Subscriptions tab is now “Subs” at the top of the Home screen. Here’s what changed in the redesign, why the new page lacks the old filters, how custom feeds work, and the workarounds that bring back the old Subscriptions view.
YouTube’s Subscriptions tab is now “Subs” at the top of the Home screen. Here’s what changed in the redesign, why the new page lacks the old filters, how custom feeds work, and the workarounds that bring back the old Subscriptions view.
Stacey
YouTube’s Subscriptions tab hasn’t been deleted. It’s been moved and renamed “Subs.” In the redesigned Android and iPhone app, the button that sat in the bottom bar since 2017 is gone, and your subscriptions feed now lives in a row of tabs across the top of the Home screen, right after “Home.” To get there, tap Home at the bottom, then tap Subs at the top (or swipe sideways between the feeds). The new layout started rolling out on October 22, 2026, and a lot of people are only noticing it now. Here’s what changed, why the new Subs page feels different, and the workarounds that bring back the old view.
YouTube announced the change in a TeamYouTube post on its Help Community, saying it’s “kicking off a series of updates to shape a more seamless Home experience.” As 9to5Google reported, Subscriptions had been the fourth button in the bottom bar for nearly a decade, so the move breaks a lot of muscle memory.
The bottom navigation now has four items: Home, Shorts, Create (the plus button) and You, your profile page with history and playlists. The old slide-out navigation menu has also been removed, according to 9to5Google and iGeeksBlog. With one fewer button, everything has shifted, so the spot where your thumb used to land for Subscriptions now opens your profile instead.
At the top of the Home screen you’ll now find a row of feeds. According to YouTube’s help page, as summarized by PPC Land, it includes:
Moving the tab is only part of the frustration. In a hands-on piece, Android Authority pointed out that the new Subs screen is missing the filter chips that sat at the top of the old Subscriptions page, including the “Today” filter many people used to see only fresh uploads from channels they follow.
The reaction from that site’s readers was lopsided. In the poll attached to the article, 92% of 729 voters picked “I hate it. Bring back the old Subscriptions tab,” while only 2% said they liked the new layout and custom feeds (results as of November 4).
There’s also a reach issue. On a tall phone, the top of the screen is the hardest place to tap with one hand, and the one feed that only shows what you chose to follow now sits in the same row as feeds YouTube picks for you.
YouTube hasn’t announced any setting to switch back to the old layout. These options help in the meantime.
This is the official route. Open Home from the bottom bar and tap Subs, the second tab at the top. You can also swipe left from the Home feed to reach it.
Android Authority found that the old Subscriptions page, with its filters, is still reachable through Android’s app shortcuts. Touch and hold the YouTube icon on your home screen, find the Subscriptions shortcut, and tap it. You can also drag that shortcut onto your home screen so it’s always one tap away. The writer cautioned that this may not last, so treat it as a temporary fix.
On a computer or a phone browser, your subscriptions page is still at youtube.com/feed/subscriptions. You can bookmark it or add it to your phone’s home screen from the browser menu.
If the change bothers you, use the Send feedback option in the app’s Help & feedback menu. It won’t bring the tab back overnight, but it’s the most direct way to let YouTube know.
Custom feeds are the headline feature that came with the redesign. Tap the “+” at the top of Home and describe what you want to watch in your own words. YouTube’s own example, quoted by 9to5Google, is “help me unwind after work with guided meditations under 10 minutes.” The app then builds a feed that keeps refreshing with new videos, and it gets its own tab after Home and Subs.
That last requirement matters if you keep your search history off for privacy: you won’t be able to use custom feeds unless you turn it on. If you’re thinking about how much your viewing habits get tracked in general, our guide on how to turn off smart TV tracking (ACR) covers the big screen side of it.
Not exactly, though many people are complaining about both at once. Separately from the Subs move, YouTube has been testing a condensed font that looks like YouTube Sans Condensed for video titles and channel names in the main feed since at least June, according to Android Headlines. It replaced the familiar Roboto for some users, and many found titles harder to scan. It’s been an A/B test, so whether you see it depends on your account.
YouTube says the redesign is about “keeping your favorite creators front-and-center” and calls it the first in a series of Home updates, so more changes are likely. The bigger picture is that YouTube wants Home to work more like a TV guide, with separate lanes for live, music, movies and AI-built feeds instead of one endless mix. If you’re interested in how that shift has played out in sports, our look at TV vs. streaming in sports broadcasting is a good background read. And if you play as much as you watch, here’s how cloud gaming is changing entertainment, too.
It moved to the top of the Home screen and is now called “Subs.” Tap Home at the bottom, then Subs at the top.
There’s no official setting for that. On Android, the Subscriptions app shortcut (touch and hold the YouTube icon) still opens the older page for now, and the website’s subscriptions page is unchanged.
The redesign is rolling out gradually, so some people still have the old bottom bar.
Custom feeds are limited for now to signed-in U.S. users aged 13+ using YouTube in English, with watch and search history turned on.
The new Subs tab doesn’t show the old filter chips like “Today,” according to Android Authority. YouTube hasn’t said whether they’ll come back.
Featured image: “Youtube App Startup” by SCBY, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.
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