YouTube is reportedly piloting a new notification system that will further extricate the platform from Google+, and which also seems primarily focused on alerting users about new videos from channels that they’re subscribed to. (Alerts will only show up when users have turned on notifications for a specific channel.)
The new notification system is currently being tested among select users and does away entirely with Google+ alerts, which were previously available within the YouTube notification tray, according to 9 To 5 Google. As new notifications only reflect video posts as of now, it is unclear whether the system will ultimately serve to alert creators about comments on their videos as well.
YouTube did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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YouTube notifications are accessible on both desktop and mobile devices by clicking the bell icon. And users who wish to revert back to the previous version of notifications can do so simply by clearing cookies on their browsers, according to 9 To 5 Google.
If YouTube were to revamp notifications, it would mark the video platform’s latest step away from Google+ after Google united both platforms (to the dismay of many users) back in 2013. Google announced its intention to reduce Google+’s influence across its other properties in 2015, making it so that users would no longer have to have a Google+ account to post content to YouTube. More recently, Google made its Hangouts On Air feature — which lets users broadcast their Google+ Hangouts — exclusively available through YouTube Live. And earlier this month, Google merged its two methods for claiming custom URLs.
