12 YouTube default settings to change right now for a more enjoyable experience - ZDNET

Our gifting experts are obsessively searching for holiday gifts that are unique, thoughtful and suitable for any budget. YouTube works well with default settings, but I tighten some privacy controls and enable a few features to make it even better. Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. YouTube is great. It’s one of the best places to learn a new skill, figure out how to fix something around the house, follow the news, find a new recipe, or watch a favorite celebrity eat incredibly spicy wings or play with puppies while promoting a new movie. Still, the default experience can be a lot. It can feel noisy, disruptive, and, dare I say, intrusive. Also: I tried DuckDuckGo’s new video player, and it blocks YouTube ads for free But I’ve found that spending just a couple of minutes toggling a few settings on or off makes YouTube far better to use. Here are the viewing, privacy, security, and feature controls I change, and why. For whatever reason, YouTube won’t let me disable Shorts entirely. I hate that because it’s a never-ending feed of AI slop and absolute trash. (Sorry, not sorry.) The mobile app does, however, include a daily limit, including for zero minutes. Also: Y