There’s Finally a Way to Block YouTube Shorts Videos on Both IPhone and Android.
I have a slight problem with short-form content. Scrolling through Instagram Reels in the evenings is so easy that I deleted the app and now only use the Instagram website on my laptop (it’s hands-down the worst Instagram experience). The problem is, I’ve transferred my addiction to YouTube Shorts. Since the YouTube app immediately greets you with a grid of short videos, it’s all too easy to spend hours scrolling through them.
It seems I’m not the only one experiencing this issue: back in October, YouTube added the ability to limit Shorts viewing time . Then, in January, it added an option to turn off Shorts in YouTube search . But while these changes are helpful, they’re far from perfect: the minimum time you could set with the timer was 15 minutes, so you could still watch Shorts after launching the app—even if it was only for a quarter of an hour. Now, YouTube is taking things even further, adding a new “0 minutes” option to the Shorts viewing time management feature. It’s not quite what I wanted—a toggle to turn Shorts off completely—but it’s a start, especially considering it removes Shorts from your main feed.
The only problem here is that this isn’t a strict block. You’ll still see the “Short Messages” tab, and if you click on a short message from a profile, you’ll see an option to ignore the daily limit. If you choose this option, you’ll be back to square one.
How to block short videos in the YouTube app on iPhone and Android
To enable this feature, open the YouTube app, go to the Profile tab, tap the Settings icon in the top toolbar, and select Time Management . Here, turn on the Shorts watch time limit feature, then select the new “0 minutes” option. YouTube is gradually rolling out this feature globally, so it may take some time to appear. According to The Verge , which spoke with YouTube spokesperson Mackenzie Spiller, this option is already available to parents and is currently rolling out to all users. If you’re a parent managing a child’s account, you should see the option to limit Shorts watch time to zero minutes immediately. Everyone else may have to wait a bit. If you’re curious what a feed looks like without Shorts, watch the video below.
If you primarily watch YouTube on a laptop, there’s no need to wait. You can block Shorts with the UnTrap extension for YouTube . It offers over 300 customization options for the YouTube interface, but my favorite feature is the ability to securely remove the Shorts section from the YouTube home screen.