Limit your Shorts scrolling to zero minutes per day.
Archived version: https://archive.is/20260415222700/https://www.theverge.com/streaming/912898/youtube-shorts-feed-limit-zero-minutes
You must log in or # to comment.
Why don’t they just make them behave like normal videos? The problem with shorts is the repeating and the endless scrolling (and the ever-present prompt to scroll). A lot of perfectly useful/entertaining content has been recommended to me by the static presentation on the home screen.
That’s the whole idea of shorts and tiktok style though; rapidly consuming quick content.
I think its interesting that for some people, that experience is deeply uncomfortable, and for others its necessary. It may sound over the top but I see a lot of parallels to hard drug addiction.
I don’t think it’s necessary for anyone, though I understand you probably mean they feel it is. They’ve done at least one study I read which showed that being fed content actually makes you stupid in the immediate short-term (long-term was outside the scope of the study). Consuming the same content by selecting which ones you want to see caused no problems. It’s the removal of agency that’s thought to be the problem, training your brain to be passive.
I just use this extension that plays them like normal videos. The UX for shorts is dumb as fuck
I use this simple userscript, no need for a random extension that only works in chrome https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/439993-youtube-shorts-redirect/code
Same it’s the best of both. Sometimes I actually want to watch a short because it’s relevant. The problem is that the UI autoplays the next video and you can’t time scrub back to the bit you probably wanted to see a second time and before you know it you’re watching cat videos and 1 hour has passed.
The is changed on Android, at least, now. 15 min is the minimum so you can’t disable it entirely.
I hated how shorts were designed to draw me into this app so much, that i deleted it all together. Now i reinstalled it, just to find out, that the feature is not yet rolled out to me.
I used revanced to completely disable shorts in the YouTube app.
OH THANK GOD
Edit: why no zero option.
because fuck you watch our ads that’s why
NewPipe literally has none of this shit. The various invidious instances as well. If you continue to use the official YouTube app, that’s on you.
Even Revanced has the options to hide Shorts or open them as regular videos. So does youtube.com with a simple Redirector rule.
this is app only and the 0 hour limit is now gone
sadly useless advice now
Maybe I’m using Shorts in a different way, but I’m not seeing a problem with them. I just view them through the home page and they’re in my suggested list like every other video. I consider them just another format of video to watch.
I think the difference is I look at them like discreet units and then jump back to my homepage as opposed to doomscrolling them.
For people browsing on mobile in the youtube app(the vast majority, i imagine), if you click a short it will take you into the shorts interface, which is designed to maximally draw users in to doomscrolling. On pc its a very different experience and easier to disengage since it just pops up like a normal video (usually?)
That makes sense. I rarely use my phone except to cast to my TV. Majority of where I use it is on PC
Sharts on desktop uses its own interface also
I have two main conplaints about shorts, myself, the end result of which is that I prefer to just never see them in my feed, ever.
-
Most shorts that pop up for me are literally just clips from longer form videos I’ve already seen, or are already on my Watch Later list. And there’s SO damn many of them. Those types of shorts are purely clutter.
-
The other type of shorts I see most often are just aping the tiktok format, characterized by being extremely shallow and low-effort, as well as having the INFURIATING tendency to be over-edited for length trimming. You know the type of editing I mean, the one where the creator apparently thinks that even pausing to BREATHE between words or thoughts is too much downtime in the video. I find it insulting that TikTok and now YouTube have normalized the idea that creators should be so overwhelmingly desperate to capture every moment of your attention. Plus, it’s pretty well understood by now that feeding your attention that heavily is wildly unhealthy for your brain.
This really fucks up the delivery and timing of comedy clips. I’ll admit I watch a lot of shorts and there are some specific creators who are really good at it. Shout out to miniminuteman and hydronyc.
I quickly run into terribly cut clips that are only coherent when you watch the full video, and of course a plethora of AI slop of both clips and ads.
I need to get off this shit.
-
that’s great but it is simple as I don’t want to
nothing more need be discussed
modern companies are just trash
Absurd that we need YouTube for that. In an ideal world, YouTube would be a backend service with an open API which there would be dozens of different apps for, with different features, including maybe this one… but I suppose you can’t make money with an ideal world…
Already blocked with revanced
Morphe
Mine doesn’t have an option for 0.
Lame.
Those shorts are entertaining little chunks of nothing that have no date and are usually cut off at the end. I’m thankful I can urn them off.
I’ve been using an addon for that for awhile: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hide-youtube-shorts/
so more restrictions, cool, interesting but how much they have to do to totaly inject hate in their userbase like facebook did
It’s not a restriction, it’s user control. You can have them always on (and I suspect that will stay as the default), turn them off, or anything in between.
You just got more tools to control the interface and remove what you don’t care about, what’s wrong about that?
appreciate it but just not write full reply, i thought: yes this feature is great but they have more restrictions and always fight adblockers, yes this still understandable by this is biggest video sharing service
lol there is no 0 option
this isn’t about user control this is getting ahead of CYA because regulation is likely coming given multiple countries are serious about limiting ages that can access social media
You mean, no such option in an app? Because at least the article and the post clearly state you can opt for 0.
and pc web interface and tv interface has no option at all and the app for ios has no 0 option
article is pretty shit if it didn’t test any of these
Shorts should have been a different app in the first place
