💡Manual “Mark as Watched” + Auto-Hide for YouTube Feeds

[Aphotic]

⚬ PROBLEM:

YouTube’s native “watched” tracking is inconsistent and not user-controlled.
Videos often remain in recommendations even after being watched, and there is no reliable way to manually mark videos as watched and hide them.

This leads to feed clutter and repeated recommendations, especially for users who want fine-grained control over their homepage.

⚬ SOLUTION:

Add a feature that allows users to manually mark YouTube videos as “watched” and automatically hide them from feeds (Home, Subscriptions, etc.).

Core functionality:

• Manually mark videos as watched (e.g., via context menu or button overlay)
• Automatically Dim/hide marked videos from visible feeds
• Provide a toggle to show hidden videos (e.g., highlighted with a red indicator)
• Allow instant unhide
• Undo last action
• Import/export watched list (for backup and portability)
• Works dynamically without requiring page refresh

This would give users explicit, persistent control over recommendation cleanup.

⚬ ALTERNATIVES:

• Relying on YouTube’s built-in watch history (not reliable and not manual)
• Using “Not interested” / “Don’t recommend channel” (too aggressive and not granular)
• Existing declutter extensions (none provide manual mark + hide + undo + import/export in a focused way)

A minimal implementation could start with manual marking + hiding only.

⚬ RELEVANCE / SCOPE:

This would benefit users who actively curate their recommendations and want a cleaner browsing experience.

Estimated relevance: likely 10–30% of engaged or power users.

The feature could be optional and disabled by default if needed.

⚬ "SIDE EFFECTS":

• Adds minor UI elements (button or context option)
• Slight increase in local storage usage (for watched list)
• Some users may prefer default YouTube behavior and not want additional controls

If implemented as optional, impact on other users should be minimal.

⚬ CONTEXT:

I created a small Chrome script that implements exactly this behavior:

• Mark videos as watched
• Hide them automatically
• Show hidden videos with a red indicator
• Undo last mark
• Import/export watched list
• Works without page refresh

The concept is proven, lightweight, and focused on one specific problem: manual feed decluttering.

Thank you!

---

SHORT Table | (Summary)

Problem | No reliable way to manually mark videos as watched and hide them from feed
Solution | Add manual “mark as watched” + auto-hide + undo + import/export
Alternatives | YouTube history, “Not interested”, limited declutter extensions
Scope | Useful for 10–30% of engaged users; optional feature
Side effects | Minor UI additions; small storage usage
Context | Feature already implemented in a lightweight Chrome script