What Does It Mean to Subscribe to a YouTube Channel?

By Laurel Storm

Keep track of your favorite YouTube users' activity with a subscription.
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With so much new content being uploaded every day to YouTube, it can be easy to lose track of when your favorite channels post a new video you may be interested in. Subscribing to a YouTube channel is sort of like subscribing to a magazine -- new content by users you're subscribed to shows up on your YouTube home page, so you see it immediately instead of having to hunt for it.

Subscribing

As long as you are logged in to your YouTube account, you will see a "Subscribe" button on any YouTube video page, as well as on channel pages. Click on that button to subscribe to that channel: once you've done so, the button changes to display a check mark and read "Subscribed." Some users may also add a subscription link you can click as an annotation to some of their videos.

Viewing Subscribed Content

A full list of channels you have subscribed to is displayed on your YouTube home page. Click on "My Subscriptions" to display a combined list of recent uploads and other activity by all channels you have subscribed to; alternatively, click on an individual channel's name to see a list of recent uploads and other activity by that channel only.

Managing Your Subscriptions

From the YouTube home page, click "Manage Subscriptions" to view a list of all channels you are subscribed to. From here, you can choose whether you want to see only a channel's uploads in your feed or also show the rest of its public activity, such as adding favorites or creating playlists. You can also set YouTube to send you an email each time a new video is uploaded to a specific channel.

Unsubscribing

If you no longer want to get updates from a particular channel, you can unsubscribe directly from the channel itself or from the page for a specific video. Hover your mouse over the "Subscribed" button so that it turns into a red "Unsubscribe" video and click it. The same button also appears when you select that particular channel in your subscription list from the YouTube main page, as well as on the subscription management page.

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