I used to have a similar thing happen on Twitter and my conclusion was that it was simply a channel that I was following that got sold and repurposed for some other use.
this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2025
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I get what you mean, but yesterday it happened while I was using the YT app on my phone and I even got the "subscribed to channel" message.
So it was absolutely a new channel.
I am leaning toward a bad ad that forced a subscription when opened.
Do you have carbon monoxide alarms installed in your home?
Yep
Those things give me a headache.
So a couple possibilities come to mind:
- Someone else has your password. Do you have kids and do they have access to devices which may have your Google account linked? You may want to change your password (use something long, hard to guess and unique).
- Your local system is compromised in some way. This would be a really odd way for someone to use that access, but it's always possible. Take a look at the apps and any browser extensions you have installed and make sure there isn't anything you don't recognize.
- There is some sort of Cross Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability which is being leveraged to subscribe you to stuff. I would expect Google to be better than to have an XSS on YouTube (they bought Mandiant a while ago, FFS). But, big companies doing stupid things is common enough. When you got the pop-up, was it in the YouTube app or a web browser. Did you have other tabs open? Other background processes from sketchy apps?
- It is Google, them doing shitty things to their product (that's you) for their customers (the advertisers paying for your eyeballs) is basically their business model. Don't like it, de-google your life (warning: this is actually really hard).
- No kids, I live alone.
- Doubtful, my main computer was turned off at the time.
- Possible, this was in the YT app on my iPhone 12 mini.
- Absolutely.
I'm with @Ftumch@lemmy.dbzer0.com , could be channels you were subscribed to being hijacked and renamed? The only subscription shenanigans I've directly observed is being silently "unsubscribed" from channels
Only time something like that happened to me was when LTT got hacked. I was suddenly subscribed to some channels promoting a crypto scam pretending to have ties with Elon Musk. Turns out they had hacked and renamed a bunch of channels owned by the Linus Media Group.
Are any of your previous subscriptions missing?
It would not surprise me if this is A/B testing a new 'feature'. I would check your account for weird logins though as it sounds like spam trash.
As i recall, the new 'collab' videos or whatever they're called will subscribe to all the channels and not just the one with the video so check any recent videos/channels you've subscribed to.
I've seen this. You'll get a video recommendation that is technically on two channels at once, and you may be subscribed to only one of them. This may be particularly annoying if you've deliberately not subscribed to the other guy featured in the video.
I have not observed this happening to me, so if it is something that YouTube are doing, A/B sounds probable.
Before degoogling it also happened to me, I assumed I touched subscribe button without noticing, but it happened several times. idk
That could absolutely be, I do play videos on my phone while it is my pocket semi regularly...
I thought maybe I just subscribed to some of the channels I noticed on my subscription list a long ass time ago and forgot, but now I'm questioning that... 🤔
There's a good reason degoogle communities are growing these days. Your best options for YouTube are either getting something like revanced/greyjay/newpipe and watch videos without logging in, but keep in mind that it doesn't count as views for the content creator, and you can also enable SponsorBlock, which supports them even less, so you could support them through patreon or whatever they use. Or you can just abandon YouTube all together, and use one of the many other alternatives like peertube, odyssey, nebula, rumble, bitchute, or whatever else.
I am on iOS, and I don't believe there is an app like that on my phone, and even then I would not really trust it with my login creds for my main email.
I really need to degoogle my crap.
Those apps don't require login at all. At most, if you want the YouTube algorithm. So for like home screen recommendations. It's fine if you have your suggestions. And those can be exported from Google, and just imported there without ever signing up. I don't know what's available for iOS though.
I hate the idea that watching ads or donating money to "support" creators. Youtube gets their content for free, why shouldn't I?
And it's not just content creators. Nobody shops anymore, they support business. Capitalism has camouflaged consumerism as political /social activism and it makes me sick!
It's still a service, both the creator and Google, provide. And support with something like patreon goes around Google AFAIK. Patreon takes a cut, but that's another story.
This happens most often than you think with YouTube.
I've never had that happen. Check your account logins to see if your Google account is compromised.
I just checked my Google Account and I didn't see anything alarming.
There was one old session to my old phone that I signed out, but nothing else.
I have a long passphrase and 2FA activated.
have you considered your PC is zombied and at least one person/group are selling you as a fake subscriber?
My PC was turned off at the time, and why would I get the notification on my phone?
that's even worse, there's so many malware apps on the Play Store alone that Google blocked 1.43 million apps just from entering the store in 2022. and that's just what they knew about and caught. one particular type of spyware has more downloads than there are people in the United States.
at this point it's a tossup between who is screwing you over more, the corps or the malware vendors that use those corps as a platform to attack you.
I am on iOS, and I try to be careful about what apps I download, At this point I think it might be an Ad that I may had tapped which has some link that could automatically subscribe you to a channel.