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> do tiktok users just switch to reels like nothing happened

Yeah. The content there is already crossposted from TikTok anyway, now it will just be created there by default. Zero functional difference. Plus the YouTube Shorts algorithm has gotten a lot less overtly awful in the last year.

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I just tested this and scrolled for a couple minutes straight — not one short was anything remotely substantive or interesting to me. An endless fountain of brain rot and offensively low quality content. Lots of it ai generated audio (wouldn’t be surprised if the content was too).

Is there something I’m doing wrong? Because mine is still very very bad. It seems to ignore my actual channel subscriptions and usual viewing habits entirely.

I don't use it signed into YouTube at all, but it's pretty good to me. A short cruise through the short just now got me: Animal Crossing island building tips; sketch comedy; linguistics trivia; Ukraine war intelligence analysis; European history; rocket league trick shots; etc. I saw one or two irrelevant brainrot clips that I scrolled passed quickly, got an ad for Temu and Battle Royale which I also scroll by quickly, but by and large it was a fun/interesting way to spend 4 or 5 minutes.

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