Articles, English

How to display YouTube Notifications instead of Google+ Notifications (and vice versa)

4 Comments

Since around October 2016, YouTube seems to display the notifications to some users in a different form.  The notification layout I am talking about looks like this:

The new notifications layout on YouTube, hitherto referred to as 'YouTube Notifications'
The new notifications layout on YouTube, referred to as ‘YouTube notifications layout’ or ‘new notifications layout’

Some people do not like to use this new layout on YouTube and they would prefer to switch back to the old notification layout that is still used on Google and Google+ and which looks like this:

Old YouTube notifications layout, still used on Google and Google+, hitherto referred to as 'Google notifications layout'.
Old YouTube notifications layout, still used on Google and Google+, referred to as ‘Google notifications layout’ or ‘old notifications layout’

A. Using the ‘Google notifications layout’ on YouTube (switching from the ‘new notifications layout’ to the ‘old notifications layout’):

It turns out that switching back from the new layout to the old layout is rather easy:  Simply delete all YouTube cookies, and you are back the ‘old notifications layout’ or ‘Google notifications layout.’ 

I, however, had deleted my YouTube cookies for a different reason and then found myself stuck with the ‘old notifications layout’ or ‘Google notifications layout.’  I wouldn’t get any notification alerts for all the YouTube channels to which I am subscribed and for which I had enabled push notifications by clicking on the little bell next to the subscription button:

 

So is there a way to switch back to the ‘new notifications layout’ or ‘YouTube notifications layout’ on YouTube?

B. Using the ‘YouTube notifications layout’ on YouTube (switching from the ‘old notifications layout’ to the ‘new notifications layout’):

It turns out that the culprit is the value of the YouTube cookie VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE and it has to be set to the value ‘jZNC3DCddAK’, so that the ‘new notifications layout’ or ‘YouTube notifications layout’ is used.

Fortunately, setting this cookie to desired value is very easy.  I tested the following method with all Safari, Firefox and Google Chrome but it should work with any modern browser that offers a JavaScript Console:

  1. Go to https://www.youtube.com/
  2. Right-click on any white spot within the page.
  3. On the appearing pop-up menu, click on ‘Inspect’ or ‘Inspect Element.’
  4. Click on the ‘Console’ tab.
  5. Copy and paste the following information into the console, then press the ‘Return’– or ‘Enter’-key to submit:
document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=jZNC3DCddAk; path=/; domain=.youtube.com";window.location.reload();

6. Refresh the page and you should be all set.  YouTube should use the ‘new notifications layout’ or ‘YouTube notifications layout’ again.