YouTube Now Allows You to Filter Short Videos From Your Search Results.
Online videos have always been addictive, but short-form content is a whole different story. No matter what platform you watch them on, these short clips draw you in and don’t let go, and before you know it, you’ve mindlessly scrolled through hours of videos, most of which you’ll never remember.
YouTube Shorts are no exception. But unlike TikTok or Instagram, short videos aren’t the platform’s primary source of video. YouTube, of course, primarily hosts long-form videos, and that’s the sole reason many of us visit the site or app. Shorts are just a secondary element, but a secondary element that YouTube actively promotes. You might come in to watch a specific video or check out new content from your subscriptions, but to do so, you’ll have to scroll through rows of “Shorts,” each vying for your attention. God help you if you accidentally click on one.
If you enjoy short videos on YouTube, please ignore this. But for everyone else who just wants to find and watch regular YouTube videos, there’s now some relief: as part of a larger update to search filters and content discovery , YouTube now allows users to filter short videos in search results . The company markets this as a way to differentiate search queries between short and regular videos, but you’ll never see me specifically searching for short videos . At least for users like me, YouTube has created a way to exclude short videos from any specific search.
How to remove YouTube Shorts from search results
To get started, open YouTube and perform a search. You’ll see a row of options at the top of the screen, one of which is “Videos.” Select it, and the search will update to show only long videos. Yay! You can do the same in the search filter settings: on a computer, when the results appear, select “Filters” in the upper right corner, then find “Type” on the left in the “Search Filters” pop-up. On mobile, tap the three-dot icon, then select “Search Filters.” On both platforms, you’ll find the “Videos” option here.
Download Newsletter
Unfortunately, you can’t set this up and forget it: you’ll have to select this option every time you search, which is certainly annoying. However, at least there’s a way to filter out short videos from your search—especially if they were interfering with your search.
YouTube may never allow us to disable Shorts completely, but there are tools to circumvent this restriction. You can limit the number of Shorts you can watch per day —though these limits aren’t always strict. The company also allows you to restrict the number of Shorts shown on your homepage, but if that’s not enough, you can install an extension that blocks Shorts from your feed .
Other changes to YouTube filters
In addition to the new Shorts filter, YouTube has made some changes to its filters and sorting options. The “Sort by” feature is now called “Priority,” and while YouTube hasn’t specified whether this feature has changed, the company states that the menu is “aimed at maximizing usefulness.” The company has also changed the “View Count” sorting option to “Popularity.” The menu still considers view count, but also watch time to sort videos in search based on the algorithm’s perceived popularity.
Finally, YouTube is removing the “Upload Date – Last Hour” and “Sort by Rating” options from search. The company states that you can still find videos uploaded more recently using the “Upload Date” filter.