What you need to know
- YouTube Music wants to show what your subscribed artists are up to.
- The app is rolling out a new Activity feed, which shows new singles and albums from subscribed artists.
- The feature is currently rolling out for Android and iOS users, but web users have to wait.
YouTube Music for Android and iOS is getting a new feed dubbed "Activity" that shows up when users hit the notifications bell icon in the music app.
As noted by 9to5Google, it was spotted in the YouTube Music app last month. However, it appears to be rolling out widely to all the app users on both iOS and Android devices.
Currently, the YouTube Music app has a notification bell icon, which can be viewed at the top when users are in the "Home" tab. This icon was generally used to roll out app notifications like every other app. However, users would see the new "Activity" feed after the latest update rollout, which shows "updates from artists you subscribe to and other activity will be shown here."
As 9to5 points out, the Activity feed is showing new singles and albums from the artists that users are subscribed to in reverse chronological order for now. When the rollout becomes more widely available to users, we might see more features added to it, like the ability to see new podcasts from their subscribed channels.
Also, the feed is likely to be grouped weekly or monthly as it currently shows some of the artists' work under the "This week" section.
Right under the new Activity feed, YouTube Music app users can also find the "Suggested for you" feed, where they can subscribe to their favorite artists for whom they haven't subscribed. As 9to5 notes, this feed is presumably based on their music listening history.
Artist activity is a familiar feature. Spotify and other music streaming services provide a similar feed highlighting the music artists enjoy, particularly the musicians they have followed.
As for the rollout, it is currently appearing on the YouTube Music app as aforementioned, and it is nowhere to be seen on the YouTube Music for web just yet.