If you’re a music lover who leans heavily on YouTube Music for your playlist needs, you’re in for a treat. The platform is finally getting its own dedicated “Activity” feed, keeping you plugged into all the latest releases from your favorite artists.
This feature was spotted earlier this year and recently again by
9to5Google. It borrows the familiar bell icon we all know and love from the main YouTube app, however, with YT Music the bell serves a slightly different purpose. Its function is to notify you of recent drops and other activity by artists you have subscribed to. This notification bell can be found on the top left of the search button in the Home tab.
Images Credit: 9to5Google
The Activity feed itself is a simple, visually-appealing timeline. Each update boasts a picture of the artist and their release artwork, followed by a snappy line like “X released a new single X title”. Releases are neatly organized, letting you quickly jump between “This week” and “Earlier” drops.
YouTube Music aims to make following artists even easier with this feature. They’ll have a “Suggested for you” list tailored to your listening history. Plus, you can always head to the Library tab, hit the Artists filter, and select “Subscriptions” for a comprehensive view of your picks.
It should be noted that you do need to actively subscribe to artists to really make the most of this feed. Curiously enough, podcast episode alerts are not integrated into this Activity feed, which feels like a missed opportunity. Hopefully, that’s something that gets added later, especially considering
Google Podcasts has now been shut down.
The good news is this update is rolling out widely, so chances are good that you’ll see it show up pretty soon. Updates are delivered server-side, but if you’re impatient, try force-stopping the YouTube Music app on Android or iOS and relaunching it. Sadly, for now, web users are left out.
