For anyone who uses YouTube often and subscribes to their favorite YouTubers, notifications are likely the best way you are able to learn when new videos get posted. Depending on how many subscriptions you have or the types of notifications you receive, you may be subjected to more notifications in a day than you want to receive. Thankfully, YouTube offers a quick and easy way to update not just how you receive notifications, but what types of notifications you receive and from whom. 

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Managing your YouTube notifications from your web browser is the easiest way to manage everything you are subscribed to and more. All you have to do is log into your YouTube account and head over to YouTube.com to get started with desktop notification updates. 

Manage Notifications on YouTube Desktop

Step 1: Locate Profile Image and Click on Settings

Once you are logged in on YouTube.com, start by locating the Profile icon in the top-right corner of the screen and as soon as you click on the icon a drop-down window will appear. Look toward the bottom of the list and there is an option for Settings. Click on it. 

Step 2: Click on Notifications 

When the new Settings options window opens, look at the left-hand side of the screen right underneath the word Settings and click on Notifications. Within this window, you are now able to update all of the available notification options YouTube has made available. There are quite a few so let’s take a look at what options are available. 

Mobile and Desktop Notifications

  • Desktop notifications: This option is something of an overall browser notification that will allow Chrome, Safari, Brave, etc. to notify you of anything you have enabled as a notification. Your Preferences: There are a few options here so let’s take a look at each one below:Subscriptions: Enable or disable this notification to receive alerts for any videos or activity from a channel you are subscribed to. Recommended videos: Enable or disable this notification to receive alerts for new videos based on the type of content you like to watch. Activity on my channel: This notification will send you alerts if someone comments on your channel or on one of your videos.Replies to my comments: Whether it’s a comment on your video or another YouTuber, this will help notify you when someone replies to your comment. Mentions: This notification will let you know when someone mentions your channel (in writing) in a video description, in a comment on their channel, etc. Shared Content: When this notification is enabled, you will receive an alert when others share your content within their channels.

Email Notifications

  • Your family: When this setting is enabled, you will receive an email to the email address you used to log into YouTube, and will give you tips with recommended content or product updates that are applicable to families. Permission: If this setting is enabled, you will receive alerts from YouTube around any required announcements from Google, legal notifications, or privacy communications. General product updates: Pretty self-explanatory but with this enabled, YouTube will notify you whenever YouTube is making a big announcement. YouTube Premium Updates: When enabled, you will receive email notifications about YouTube Premium updates, recommendations, and announcements related to the subscription service. Creator updates and announcements: This one is more for creators but will let you know when YouTube makes any announcements around creator events, tips to help grow your YouTube channel, as well as any major product announcements.

Manage YouTube Notifications on Mobile

As easy as it is to manage YouTube notifications on the desktop, managing the same notifications on mobile is just as user-friendly. Of course, the first step is to make sure notifications for YouTube are enabled in general which you can do on the iPhone under Settings > Notifications > YouTube > Allow Notifications. 

Step 1: Open YouTube App and Tap on Your Profile Icon

As soon as you open the YouTube app, just as you do with the desktop, tap on the profile icon in the upper right-hand corner of the app.

Step 2: Tap on Settings

When the new window appears, you’ll look toward the bottom of the screen (these steps are the same for both iOS and Android) and find Settings. 

Step 3: Locate Notifications 

The moment you tap on Settings in the step above, a new screen will open and you will find Notifications sandwiched in the middle of the available options. Tap on it. 

Step 4: Enable or Disable Mobile Notifications

When this new screen opens you will see a whole host of notification options that can be delivered via mobile, whether it’s on an iPad or any Android smartphone. 

Scheduled digest

  • This will be enabled when you want to get all of your notifications in what is called a “daily digest” which will group all your notifications into one bulk delivery rather than individual notifications. If you opt into this notification, you can choose a delivery time as well.

Subscriptions 

  • When this is enabled, it will deliver notifications from the YouTube channels you are currently subscribed to.

Channel settings 

  • If you go into this option, you can choose to separate out the notification types you receive from each channel you are subscribed to, rather than the option above which is a catch-all for all notifications.
  • Should you enable this feature, it will notify you of videos that YouTube’s algorithm believes meets your interests.

Activity on my channel 

  • This alert will notify you when someone comments or performs some other activity on your channel or on one of your videos.

Replies to my comments

  • If someone responds to a comment you posted, whether on your channel or on someone else’s video, it lets you know someone has replied.

Mentions 

  • Should someone mention your name in writing, whether in a description or in a comment, you will be notified that you have been tagged somewhere.

Shared content 

  • Notifications will be delivered if this setting is active if someone looks to share your content on their channel and tags you.

Product updates 

  • This is more of a general YouTube notification and lets you know when YouTube has some type of product announcement.

Watch on TV

  • If you have this setting enabled, YouTube will make random suggestions if the video you are watching will look good on a TV screen.

Disable sound & vibrations 

  • When enabled, notifications are silenced during the hours you specify on your device. You can customize the time by tapping on the option.

Manage YouTube Notifications for Specific Channels on Desktop

Along with all of the options above, you have the choice of being more granular with your notifications for any channel or creator you subscribe to. The process isn’t all that dissimilar from the desktop steps above so you’ll follow Profile > Settings > Notifications > Your preferences > Subscriptions and click on Channels I’m subscribed to. 

Update Notification/Subscription Status  

Within this window, you’ll see every YouTube channel you are currently subscribed to. If you wish to remove someone from your current notification delivery, you can click on the bell icon to the right of their name and update the setting where you can choose from All, Personalized, None, or Unsubscribe. 

Manage YouTube Notifications for Specific Channels on Mobile

In a similar fashion as the steps above, you can also manage YouTube notifications from all of the individual channels you subscribe to on your mobile device. Once again the steps are the same whether you are on Android or iOS including tablets. You’ll start by going back to the same place you were earlier with Profile > Settings> Notifications > Channel settings. 

Update Notification/Subscription Status

Once you tap on Channel settings, you will find the same list of subscriptions as you would on the desktop with a bell toward the right of their channel name. If you tap on the bell, three different options appear: All, Personalized, and None. 

Should you choose Personalized, it will send you notifications based on the type of activity you generally perform on that channel. For example, you might get notifications every time a new video is posted but not when a new Short is posted if you don’t want the creator’s Shorts regularly. You might also not get a notification for an upcoming live event if you don’t regularly frequent those either. 

Final Thoughts

Depending on how many creators you subscribe to on YouTube, notifications can quickly get out of control. Having all of these features and options laid out in the steps above will help you manage and control the volume of what’s coming into your inbox or what’s being pushed to your phone or tablet. In fact, these tips might just save you from notification overload.