Today we’re launching Watchlist, an app for following the YouTube channels you care about, on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV. Review new uploads, save what matters and watch it in the order you choose, without a Google sign-in or a recommendation feed.
Why Watchlist?
YouTube is full of brilliant creators, and following a handful of them shouldn’t mean taking on an endless feed. You open the app for one video from a channel you love, and an hour later you’re somewhere you never meant to be.
Watchlist keeps the channels and leaves the rest. It’s made for people who like the creators, not the machine, and who want to keep watching what they value without losing evenings to whatever plays next.
Review first, watch second
Add a channel by its name, its handle or a link. There’s no Google account to connect, because Watchlist follows channels through their public feeds. Already subscribed to plenty on YouTube? Bring them across from a Google Takeout export, with an importer that’s still in beta. Every new upload lands in Review for a quick yes or no: save what looks good, and dismiss the rest. Hide uploads by a phrase in the title, and keep Shorts out entirely with one switch. Nothing autoplays.
A queue that behaves
Saved videos wait in Watch, as a list, a table or a grid. Drag them into the order you want in Up Next, and a mini player follows you around the app while you browse.
Collections give every interest a home: recipes, long interviews, the next project. File videos into them as you go, or link a channel to a collection and its new uploads arrive there for you to review. A video can belong to more than one collection, and none of it changes your YouTube account.
On the big screen
On Apple TV, the next video in your queue fills the screen. Review new uploads from the sofa, browse your channels, and choose a video to watch it in YouTube. Watchlist marks it as watched for you, and you can choose a plan right there on the TV.
A few things we love
Watchlist is a proper Mac app, with menus, keyboard shortcuts and windows you can arrange how you like. Widgets and Control Centre controls keep your queue close on iPhone and iPad, and Siri and Shortcuts can refresh your channels before you sit down to watch. Your channels, queue and watch state stay in step across your devices through your own private iCloud account, and there’s no Wells Code account to make.
Plans and pricing
Every plan includes every feature on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV, with Family Sharing. Annual is £19.99 a year and Monthly is £2.99 a month, each with a 14-day free trial for new subscribers. If you’d rather not subscribe, Pay Once is £49.99, and it’s yours to keep. There’s more about what Watchlist can do on Watchlist’s page.
Thank you
Watchlist has been in private preview for a while, and the people testing it have shaped it more than they probably know. Their feedback has been generous and genuinely useful. Thank you, all of you.
What’s next
We have plenty more planned for Watchlist, and we’ll share it when it’s ready. In the meantime, we’re hard at work on the rest of the Wells Code family. If you’d like to hear about it first, our own feed is a good place to start.
Thank you for reading, and for giving Watchlist a try. Enjoy the next thing you choose to watch.