If you have YouTube TV, you’re going to wish that you knew about these features sooner!
In this article and the featured video below, I share 15 settings to help new and existing YouTube TV subscribers get the most out of the live TV streaming service.
Please note: Some settings can only be changed from your computer and/or phone, not your TV set.
1. Don’t Show Me This
The YouTube TV home screen provides recommendations that get better the more you watch.
But if there’s something that you absolutely DO NOT want to see on your home screen, select the menu (three dots) for a specific program and then Don’t show me this.
This option is available from your phone or computer. Here’s the view from a desktop:
This feature will remove the program from the home screen, but you’ll still be able to find it using the search function or through the live guide in case you change your mind.
2. Adjust Notifications
From the YouTube TV mobile app, select Notify and the bell icon from the program page or below the video player on the watch page.
That way, you’ll get an alert when a new live airing starts.
But if YouTube TV notifications are a problem for you, there’s a solution for that too. Go to the YouTube TV settings from your phone and click Notifications.
Here you can turn on or off notifications for recommendations, account information and product updates.
3. Customize Live Guide
YouTube TV has more than 85 channels in its base plan, but chances are you only watch maybe 10 or so of them on a regular basis.
The good news is that you can customize the live guide to see your favorites first.
From either your phone or computer, navigate to your account settings and click on Live guide from the menu to the left.
Now, you can create a custom live guide and remove or change the order of the channels.
- To remove a channel, uncheck it and it won’t show up
- To reorder a channel, select it and drag it up or down
After making the changes, reopen the live guide from any device and make sure that you have the custom live guide selected — not the default one.
I have a separate video that walks you through the process in just two minutes:
4. Record Shows
YouTube TV includes unlimited DVR storage, so why not take advantage of it and add your favorite shows, movies and live events to your library?
You can do this from any device: your phone, computer or from a TV set.
When you select a program, look for the add button — which is the plus symbol. Then, new airings will be added to your library.
Once you’re ready to view your recordings, navigate to the Library tab and they’ll be there.
But here’s a tip: Select the DVR version that says Recorded, not the VOD (Video On Demand) version that says Released.
When you watch recordings, you can always fast-forward through the commercials. But many on-demand shows and movies will have unskippable ads.
That’s just another reason to add as much to your library as possible. Remember, you have unlimited DVR storage!
Here’s a separate video tutorial that walks you through YouTube TV’s DVR.
5. Start From Beginning
If you want to join a live program in-progress and skip through the ads, you can do that as long as it’s in your library.
When you’re recording a program that’s airing live, select it and you’ll have two choices:
- Join live
- Start from beginning
Just remember: Add the program to your library BEFORE IT STARTS to enjoy this flexibility and skip those commercials!
6. Mark as Watched
The unique thing about YouTube TV’s DVR is that it’s all or nothing for most programming.
For example, let’s say that I set a recording for House Hunters. That means YouTube TV is going to record every episode that airs, new AND reruns.
But if you’ve ever started watching a show only to realize a few minutes in that you’ve already seen it, you’ll want to use the Mark as Watched feature.
From your computer or phone, find the TV show episode that you want to mark as watched and select the three dots to access the menu.
Then, click Mark episode as watched or Mark season as watched.
You can’t select this feature directly from your TV. Let’s hope that YouTube TV adds this option soon.
7. Delete Search and Watch History
If YouTube TV’s recommendations are totally off, you may want to try clearing your search and watch history.
From a computer:
- Go to the Settings tab
- Click Privacy
- Click Manage search history and Manage watch history
From there, you’ll be able to delete things you’ve viewed on YouTube TV and YouTube. It’s easy to delete items individually or you can select by date range.
You can also pause search and watch history going forward, but that will affect your recommendations.
8. Prevent Sports Spoilers
YouTube TV makes it easy to follow your favorite teams and leagues.
From the search bar, you can type the name of your favorite team and add it to your library to record upcoming games.
But to prevent spoiler alerts, head to the menu from the team page and select Hide all scores for this team.
That way, YouTube TV won’t display the final score before you’ve had a chance to watch the game.
9. Family Sharing
You can share your YouTube TV subscription with other people who live in your household.
The primary account holder is called the Family Manager. They can share YouTube TV with up to five members — for a total of 6 accounts per household.
From the settings, the account manager can invite members with a Google account.
Having separate accounts for different members of the household allows each person to get their own recommendations and DVR.
Just remember, you must live in the same household as other members on the account.
YouTube TV allows for three simultaneous streams with the base plan, which should be plenty for most households.
10. Change Your Home Area
YouTube TV allows you to change your home area, with some limitations.
Only the family manager can make this change. From the account settings, select Area and then Update.
You can change your home area twice per year.
This comes in handy for people who relocate or split their time between two homes throughout the year.
11. Dark Theme
With the default version of YouTube TV on a web browser and mobile device, the background is white.
But there is a dark theme that you can enable.
Whether you’re on a computer or your phone, select your profile picture in the corner, tap Settings and select the Dark Theme.
Take a look at the difference above. Which do you prefer?
12. Change Streaming Quality
If you’re watching your data usage, you may want to adjust the YouTube TV streaming quality.
I’m on a mobile device for this demonstration. From the video player, select the three dots in the upper right corner and then Quality.
It’s set to automatic on all supported devices, but you can adjust down or up as necessary.
If you want to stream video in 4K, that feature is available as an add-on from your account settings. However, the amount of content available to stream in 4K remains limited.
13. Parental Controls
There’s a way to make YouTube TV kids safe.
You can turn on the “Allow TV-Y, TV-G, G, and PG only” setting to filter which programs can be watched using the service.
From a mobile device, click Settings, Filter and make the selection.
According to YouTube TV, this setting turns on the filter for only one device.
So from a TV set, you’ll want to select the profile picture, tap settings, filter and then turn on Enable the TV-Y, VG-G, G and PG only setting.
If you have multiple children with separate accounts, repeat this process for each device tied to their YouTube TV account.
14. TV Everywhere
For many of the networks in its lineup, YouTube TV users can use their sign-in information to watch TV Everywhere.
Here’s how it works:
- Go to the mobile app or website for a specific network
- Select YouTube TV as your service provider
- Enter your YouTube TV sign-in information
- Get instant access to what the network app or website offers
Here’s a full list of participating networks.
15. Manage Your Membership
This is something only the family manager can do.
From the account settings on your computer, click on Billing.
Next to the payment method, select Update and you’ll be able to manage your payment information.
This is where you can change your payment method and even add a backup.
And if you ever want to pause or cancel your YouTube TV membership, head to the Membership tab. You can easily see your billing date from that screen.
I made another video that explains the differences between pausing and canceling YouTube TV:
How to Contact YouTube TV
If you have additional questions about YouTube TV’s settings and features that were not answered in this article, you can reach out to YouTube TV customer support here.
And for more coverage of YouTube TV and other streaming services, subscribe to my YouTube channel!
Do you need Wi-Fi to run youtube tv or can you use an apple lightning hdmi adapter where Wi-Fi is unavailable?
Great tips, helped me get my family setup! The custom menu rocks, now if I could just get it to default to Live TV it would save a few clicks. We’re in trial mode but stand to save $60 a month over my spectrum cable provider if this tests out.
My wife would like to see if there were a way to increase the size of the channel name on the “live” guide. Even on our 65″ TV many are unreadable across the room.
Unfortunately, no. And the new live guide made all of that stuff smaller! I wish there was a way to do this myself.