YouTube tests limiting ‘All’ notifications for inactive channel subscribers

YouTube is testing a change to YouTube notifications that could stop some users from receiving alerts, even if they selected “All” notifications for a channel. The small-scale experiment, which initially started in March 2025, affects subscribers who have not recently interacted with a channel.

The test is designed to reduce notification fatigue and prevent users from turning off YouTube app notifications entirely.

Why is YouTube testing this change?

YouTube reports that many viewers subscribe to multiple channels while they activate all notification settings to receive alerts about every new video. Users who experience constant content uploads to their accounts throughout the day start to feel overwhelmed yet choose not to change their content delivery settings. The users choose to turn off all app notifications for their devices.

YouTube said viewers often forget to manage notification settings when their interests change. Creators can see the impact of this behaviour in the Audience tab, where app-level notification opt-outs reduce reach. 

The company believes this YouTube notification test may help maintain long-term engagement without driving users to switch off alerts completely.

The test does not impact channels that upload infrequently. Actively engaged viewers will also continue receiving all alerts as usual. Even if push notifications are limited, uploads will still appear in the subscriber’s inbox.

YouTube has been running variations of this experiment for nearly a year. It remains unclear whether the company will roll out the change widely.