--- title: "How to Get New YouTube Videos and Podcast Episodes by Email" description: "YouTube stopped emailing about new uploads in 2020, and podcast apps only buzz your phone. The channel's hidden RSS feed, an RSS-to-email service, or one sentence." url: "https://mailmewhen.com/guides/youtube-podcast-new-episode-email" lang: "en" published: "2026-10-13" modified: "2026-10-13" --- # How to Get New YouTube Videos and Podcast Episodes by Email *Updated October 13, 2026* To get new YouTube videos and podcast episodes by email, you can feed the channel's RSS address into an RSS-to-email service, take phone notifications from the bell or a podcast app, use an automation tool, join the creator's newsletter, or send one sentence to MailMeWhen, with no account and no app. You subscribed, you pressed the bell, and you still find out about the new episode a week late. YouTube stopped emailing subscribers about new uploads on August 13, 2020; it said fewer than 0.1% of those emails were opened. What's left is a notification on your phone, and only when YouTube decides to send one. Podcast apps do the same: a buzz, then the episode slides down a queue. If you want a line in your inbox when a particular channel or show posts, nothing does that on its own anymore. ## Ways to get new videos and episodes by email 1. The channel's hidden RSS feedThe channel's hidden RSS feed plus an RSS-to-email service: every YouTube channel still has a feed at youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id= followed by the channel ID, a string starting with UC that sits in the channel page's source, not in its address. The feed lists the 15 newest videos and needs no account. A podcast is an RSS feed by definition, and the show's site usually links it. Paste the address into Blogtrottr or Feedrabbit and pick a schedule. The free plans come with ads or limits, and digging the ID out of page source is where most people give up. 2. The bell and the podcast app: on YouTube, subscribing gives you 'Personalized' notifications, which means YouTube picks which uploads to tell you about. Switch the bell to 'All notifications' to get long-form uploads and live streams; even then, YouTube's help says not every upload results in a notification, and the setting resets if you unsubscribe and re-subscribe. In Apple Podcasts, following a show turns on notifications for all new episodes by default. All of this is on the phone and in the app. Nothing reaches your inbox, and a notification you swipe away is gone. 3. An automation tool or a Discord bot: IFTTT, Zapier and similar services can take a YouTube channel or any RSS feed as the trigger and send you an email, and Discord servers run bots that post every new upload to a channel. Good for a community that wants the drop in a shared place. For one person it's an account and a recipe to maintain, and the free tiers have grown thin. 4. The creator's own newsletter: many channels and shows keep a mailing list on their site or on a newsletter platform, and some send a note with every episode. It's the creator's voice, it's free, and it arrives when they feel like writing, with the sponsor's paragraph attached. Not every channel has one, and the ones that do rarely send one per upload. ## A new-episode email in one sentence Name the channel or the show the way you'd say it to a friend: 'email me when Veritasium posts a new video', or 'every time 99% Invisible puts out an episode, send me the title and the first lines of the show notes'. A link works too. You don't need the channel ID or the feed address. A real person reads it and sets it up. No account, no app. We find the channel's feed, or the show's, from the name, and check it through the day. When there's something new, you get a letter that evening, your local time: the title, the link, and the opening lines of the description, so you can decide whether to open it. Several uploads in one day come in one letter. When nothing new was posted, nothing arrives. Several channels and shows can share one letter; list them and say whether you want everything or only certain topics. Shorts and live streams count as uploads in YouTube's feed. Say so if you'd rather not hear about them, and the first letter tells you what we can filter. Videos for members only and private videos don't appear in the feed, so we can't see them either. The first 7 days are free with no payment details; after that it's $5/month for that one letter, and it stops by itself if you don't subscribe. Reply once to stop. ## Good to know about YouTube and podcast feeds The feed is public and needs no login, which is why it works for any channel, including ones you never subscribed to and without a Google account. It only holds the 15 most recent videos, so for a channel that posts dozens of Shorts a day, a reader that checks once a day will miss some. That's also why we check more often than we write. A podcast that exists only inside one app has no public feed. If a show is exclusive to a single platform and you can't find it in any other podcast app, there's nothing to read, and the only route is that app's notifications. Most shows, including the big ones, are ordinary feeds that every app reads. YouTube's notification settings still have an 'Email notifications' section. It covers things like account and creator messages. New uploads from channels you subscribe to aren't in it, and that hasn't changed since 2020. People searching for 'YouTube email notifications not working' are mostly looking for a feature that was switched off. ## Try it — hand us this sentence: > Every time the YouTube channel Veritasium or the podcast 99% Invisible puts out something new, email me the title, the link and the first lines of the description. If there's more than one in a day, one email in the evening is enough. [Take me there →](https://mailmewhen.com/?need=Every%20time%20the%20YouTube%20channel%20Veritasium%20or%20the%20podcast%2099%25%20Invisible%20puts%20out%20something%20new%2C%20email%20me%20the%20title%2C%20the%20link%20and%20the%20first%20lines%20of%20the%20description.%20If%20there's%20more%20than%20one%20in%20a%20day%2C%20one%20email%20in%20the%20evening%20is%20enough.) ## Common questions **Does YouTube send email notifications for new videos?** Not anymore. YouTube stopped emailing subscribers about new uploads, live streams and premieres on August 13, 2020, saying fewer than 0.1% of those emails were opened. New uploads now come as app and browser notifications, and only when the bell is set to 'All notifications'. For an email, use the channel's RSS feed with an RSS-to-email service, or send MailMeWhen the channel's name. The first 7 days are free with no payment details, then $5/month. **How do I find a YouTube channel's RSS feed?** The feed is youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id= followed by the channel's ID, a string that starts with UC. The channel's address usually shows a handle instead, so open the channel page, view the page source and search for 'channelId'. Playlists work the same way with playlist_id= and the playlist's ID from its address. The feed holds the 15 newest videos and needs no account. **Can I get new podcast episodes by email?** Yes. Every podcast is an RSS feed, usually linked from the show's website, and services like Blogtrottr and Feedrabbit turn a feed into emails. Following a show in Apple Podcasts or Spotify only gives you notifications on the phone. With MailMeWhen, you name the show and get a letter the evening a new episode appears, with the title, the link and the opening lines of the show notes. ## More guides - [How to Get an Email Before It Rains](https://mailmewhen.com/guides/rain-alert-email): Set up a rain alert that lands in your inbox the day before — weather apps, automation tricks, or one written sentence. No app needed. - [How to Get a Daily Weather Forecast by Email](https://mailmewhen.com/guides/daily-weather-forecast-email): Have tomorrow's weather for your city land in your inbox every morning or evening — weather-service emails, automation tools, or one written sentence. - [How to Get a Word of the Day by Email, in Any Language](https://mailmewhen.com/guides/word-of-the-day-email): Daily word or phrase emails for the language you're learning — dictionary newsletters, language apps, or one written sentence that fits your level. No app. --- [MailMeWhen](https://mailmewhen.com/) · [Guides](https://mailmewhen.com/guides) · [Privacy](https://mailmewhen.com/privacy) · [Terms](https://mailmewhen.com/terms) Questions or ideas? Write to hello@mailmewhen.com — we always answer. Markdown twin of every page: append `.md` to its URL or request it with `Accept: text/markdown`. Site summary for AI agents: https://mailmewhen.com/llms.txt. 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