YouTube is ripping up the entire search filters menu structure and reorganizing it completely after hearing from users who weren’t happy with the current setup, as per Android Authority. If you are someone who actively uses the filters to refine your search results, you’ll definitely notice some massive changes coming soon.
If you’re on desktop, you usually find the filter button near the top right of the screen after you’ve typed in a search. Mobile users have to tap on those vertical three dots in the top right corner. The platform says this massive update is designed to simplify the menu, make it more intuitive, and generally improve how you find videos. That sounds great, right?
The best part of this overhaul is that YouTube is actually admitting some filters just weren’t working properly in the first place. They are ditching the ability to sort results by “Last hour” and “Rating.” YouTube specifically noted that these options “had contributed to user complaints” because they “were not working as expected.” I think it’s a smart move to pull the broken features out of the system entirely. However, losing the “Rating” filter is a little rough, though.
Being able to filter Shorts when you’re looking for a deep dive tutorial is a top-tier feature we’ve needed for a while
Now for the new filter that should have been here ages ago. You’re finally going to see a dedicated option for “Shorts” located under the Type category. You can now tell the search results whether you want to see short-form vertical videos or stick strictly to the traditional long-form content. I’m genuinely baffled that this filter didn’t exist years ago. It’s a necessity now that Shorts are being pushed into every corner of the platform, that too with their dislike buttons practically hidden.
While fixing broken filters and adding necessary ones is smart, some of the name changes they’re implementing are truly confusing. After getting on with YouTube’s ad update last year, now get ready for some tech jargon nonsense that doesn’t feel intuitive at all.
The category currently known as “Sort By” is now going to be called “Prioritize.” Additionally, the “View count” filter is being renamed to “Popularity.” I honestly don’t know who decided “Prioritize” sounds better or clearer than “Sort By,” but this just seems like unnecessary complexity. If the goal is to simplify the menu and make it more accessible, changing familiar, useful terms for academic-sounding replacements seems like a strange choice.
If you use the filters heavily, you might also notice that the “Upload Date” option is moving right into the middle of the menu as part of the overall reorganization. While I appreciate the effort to ditch the broken features and finally give us a dedicated Shorts filter, I can’t help but feel that these confusing renames might just trade one set of user complaints for another.
Published: Jan 9, 2026 02:30 pm