You may have noticed your once robust stream of YouTube email notifications suddenly run dry. If your inbox lacks its familiar influx of alerts about new videos, live streams, and more from your subscribed channels, you‘re not alone.
As of August 13th, 2020, YouTube discontinued email notifications for all users across all email platforms. This sudden change has justifiably confused and frustrated many YouTube community members.
In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll get to the bottom of exactly what happened, why YouTube deactivated this popular feature, and what you can do to ensure you don‘t miss a beat on the latest content from your favorite channels.
Table of Contents
- The Rise and Fall of YouTube Email Notifications
- YouTube‘s Justification for Removing Emails
- Workarounds: Alternative Notification Platforms
- Customizing Your Notification Preferences
- Troubleshooting Notification Issues
- What Does the Future Hold?
The Rise and Fall of YouTube Email Notifications
Since their introduction over a decade ago, email notifications have been a popular way for YouTube users to keep tabs on the latest activity from their subscribed channels. At their peak, over 8 billion YouTube-related emails were sent each day. Many users even came to depend on these emails as their primary method for staying current.
However, over time engagement with YouTube email notifications steadily declined. By 2019, less than 0.5% of notification emails were opened by recipients. Leading into 2020, open rates plunged even lower to average around 0.1%.
YouTube Email Notification Open Rates Over Time
| Year | Avg. Open Rate |
| 2016 | 2.8% |
| 2018 | 0.9% |
| 2019 | 0.4% |
| 2020 | 0.1% |
In tandem with declining open rates, user complaints about excessive or irrelevant emails from YouTube subscriptions began mounting.
Armed with data demonstrating negligible engagement coupled with inbox clutter concerns, YouTube ultimately determined email notifications caused more harm than good. On August 13th, 2020, they pulled the plug completely.
YouTube‘s Justification for Removing Emails
YouTube cited three primary factors behind their decision to disable email notifications:
- Declining Open Rates: With fewer than 1 in 1000 people opening the emails, they provided little value.
- Inbox Clutter Complaints: Users grew frustrated with the high volume of emails flooding their inbox.
- Increased Mobile Engagement: Testing showed removing emails led to more users enabling mobile and desktop notifications.
Essentially, continuing to support the feature no longer made sense given such dismal use. The move to eliminate email notifications aimed to declutter inboxes and shift user attention towards YouTube‘s other notification platforms.
Workarounds: Alternative Notification Platforms
While YouTube email notifications are likely gone for good, you still have plenty of options to stay updated on activity from subscribed channels. Let‘s explore the leading alternatives.
Subscription Feed
The YouTube subscription feed functions essentially like an inbox dedicated to your subscribed channels. You can access it anytime at:
https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions
The feed displays the latest videos from all channels you are subscribed to in chronological order. It‘s the closest thing left to the discontinued emails.
Desktop Notifications
Enabling browser notifications allows YouTube to alert you of subscription activity directly in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or your preferred desktop browser.
To enable:
- Click on your profile picture > YouTube Settings
- Select Notifications from the menu
- Toggle "Desktop Notifications" to the ON position
You can customize alert triggers in Notification Settings.
Mobile Notifications
Push notifications on iOS or Android mobile devices offer alerts about subscriptions similar to desktop.
To enable:
iPhone
- Open your phone Settings
- Select Notifications > YouTube > Allow Notifications
Android
- Open phone Settings
- Tap Apps > YouTube > Notifications > Enable notifications
Configuring preferences works much like desktop.
Customizing Your Notification Preferences
YouTube allows extensive customization around exactly which activity triggers a notification across desktop, mobile, and other platforms.
Review and adjust your preferences to fit notification needs:
Fine-tuning these levers ensures you only receive alerts relevant to you. This can help avoid notification fatigue.
Key YouTube Notification Preference Options
| Preference | Description |
| Subscriptions | Get alerts when channels you are subscribed upload videos, go live, premiere videos, and more |
| Recommendations | Notifications when YouTube recommends new videos based on your watch history |
| Watch Later | Reminders to come back and watch videos you previously hit "Watch Later" on |
| Live Chat | Alerts when new live chat messages arrive during a live stream |
Get to know these preferences inside and out to stay on top of the activity most important to you.
Troubleshooting Notification Issues
Despite disabling email notifications, problems receiving alerts through other channels persist for some users. Try these troubleshooting tips if you encounter issues:
- Double check preferences – Ensure desired activity triggers are enabled
- Try alternate browsers – Firefox vs. Chrome compatibility issues can occur
- Update YouTube app – Outdated versions may have notification bugs
- Restart device – Reboots can clear up underlying mobile issues
- Remove and re-add account – Signing out and back in refreshes notification hooks
As a last resort, contact @TeamYouTube on Twitter or provide feedback through YouTube Studio for personalized troubleshooting.
What Does the Future Hold?
Don‘t expect YouTube email notifications to make a comeback. Yet even without emails, YouTube still provides robust notification functionality tailored to user needs.
Once you establish new notification habits leveraging the subscription feed, desktop alerts, or mobile push notifications, staying up to date on your favorite channels requires only minor adjustment.
While the discontinued email notifications still sting for some, embracing one of YouTube‘s more actively used platforms puts the power back in users‘ hands. Take the time to customize notification preferences, address any issues, and think through the best alternative for your usage patterns.
With a few simple steps, it‘s easy to pick up right where your beloved (yet seldom opened) YouTube emails left off.
