YouTube Music will stop using precise location to power recommendations

Abner Li | Aug 26 2022 - 1:24 pm PT

One way YouTube Music offers recommendations is by knowing your precise location, but that’s going to stop next month.

YouTube Music has long used your precise location to power certain recommendations. For example, the app might offer “a Workout Essentials playlist at the gym, your Focus Supermix at work, or an Unwind playlist to relax at home.” Users had to first grant the app that location permission and opt-in to Google Location History.

Note: This change only impacts your location settings in YouTube Music.It does not impact your Google Location History settings or any of your device’s location settings. You can manage your Google Location History settings here.

That approach is going to stop on Monday, September 26, with YouTube Music removing “all precise location-based recommendations, location settings, and app permissions.” Additionally, it’s “deleting any YouTube Music data derived from your precise location.” “Privacy & location” appears toward the end of preferences, and Google has always offered a toggle to temporarily pause it.

The company cites other recommendation methods that it introduced over the past year, like the activity bar with the Energize, Workout, Relax, Commute, and Focus feeds. This is considered a “better approach to help you soundtrack your day” and undoubtedly more intentional.

However, YouTube Music will still “personalize your music experience based on your approximate location.” This might include weather-related playlists for your city (e.g., rainy day) or top songs charts by country, which are both much vaguer.