YouTube has updated its search filter system, introducing new labels and options while removing several existing sorting features, according to an announcement posted on 8th January 2026 by Hank from TeamYouTube.
The changes affect how users filter and prioritize search results on the platform.
What Changed
YouTube added a Shorts filter under the Type menu, allowing users to choose between short-form videos and longer videos when searching.
The “Sort By” menu has been renamed to “Prioritize.” Within this Prioritize menu, the former “View count” option is now labeled “Popularity.” YouTube said this option uses view count and other relevance signals, such as watch time, to rank videos for a specific search query.
According to TeamYouTube, two filters were removed:
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“Upload Date – Last Hour”
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“Sort by Rating”
In the previous version of YouTube’s search filters, users could also sort results directly by Upload date, View count, or Rating, and could filter videos uploaded in the last hour (but it is not the case anymore).
In the updated version, the Upload Date section now only offers Today, This week, This month, and This year. The Prioritize section now contains only Relevance and Popularity, and the “Sort by Upload date” option is no longer available as a sorting method.
Why YouTube Made the Changes
TeamYouTube said the filter menu was simplified to make the search experience more intuitive. The company stated that some options were removed because they were not working as expected and had led to user complaints (YouTube did not provide specific examples of the issues in the announcement.).
YouTube also said users can still find recent videos using the remaining Upload Date filters and can find widely viewed content using the Popularity option.
User Responses
Many users in the comment section expressed dissatisfaction with the removal of the “Sort by Upload date” and “Last Hour” options.
Several said they relied on chronological sorting to find newly uploaded content. Others said the new system makes it harder to locate recent videos because results are no longer ordered strictly by upload time.
Some users asked for a recency option to be added to the Prioritize menu. Others said the current filters return unrelated or older content when searching for recent uploads.
A smaller number of users thanked YouTube for the update and welcomed the changes.
YouTube’s Position
In the announcement, TeamYouTube invited users to share feedback and directed them to the Help Center for more information on using search filters. No additional responses addressing the specific concerns about the removed options were included in the post.
Notes: This post was drafted with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed, edited/fact-checked, and published by humans.
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by Ayaz Khan via Digital Information World
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