YouTube On Android Gets Incognito Mode

For those times when you want to watch a video on YouTube, but would really rather not have it appear in your history. YouTube’s future recommendations to you. Incognito mode is bound to be extremely popular with Android users.

The popular video streaming app has officially launched “Incognito Mode” on the Android version of the app. YouTube started testing the feature back in May, but it wasn’t until this week that the feature started rolling out for all Android users. Now, instead of signing out of your account, it’s possible to enable the new mode in your settings. The Sign Out button then changes to read “Turn on Incognito.” Tapping it will bring up the message “You’ve gone incognito,” as noted by 9to5Google.

YouTube’s Incognito Mode enables users to browse in private. The feature disables both your watch history and search history. That means if someone were to borrow your phone and open the app, they would not be able to see anything you searched for or viewed while you were in Incognito Mode because it doesn’t log any of that information.

There will be regular reminders Incognito mode is enabled, the most visual of which is Google’s hat and shades icon in the top right corner. At the bottom of the app, Android users will be greeted by this message when turning on Incognito Mode for the first time:

“You’ve gone incognito.

 “When you turn off Incognito or become inactive, your activity from this session will be cleared and you’ll return to the account last used. Your activity might still be visible to your employer, school, or internet service provider”.

How to turn on YouTube’s Incognito Mode

To turn it on, ensure you have the latest version of the YouTube app by opening the Google Play Store, tapping the hamburger menu icon on the top left, tapping My apps & games, and then tapping either Update All or Update next to the YouTube app.

Users will find the “Turn on Incognito mode” option in the Account section of the YouTube app. When they’re in this mode, the app is going to display a bar at the bottom to remind users that they have gone incognito. All of their watch and search activity is cleared when they exit the mode. It automatically deactivated after a period of inactivity.

Only the Home and Trending sections of the app will be accessible in the incognito mode. Users won’t be able to access the inbox, library, and subscriptions until they exit and they will not be able to save any videos to their playlists as well.

This feature is widely rolling out starting today and appears to coincide with version 13.25.56, which should now be available via the Play Store. The feature is currently unavailable on iOS, but it may likely come soon.