How to block YouTube Shorts on Android, iPhone and a laptop

Shorts is awkward to block for one reason: it is not an app. It is a feed inside an app a lot of people genuinely need — for lectures, tutorials, recipes, music — and most blocking tools only understand whole apps. Block YouTube and the Shorts go with everything else. Leave it open and the Shorts tab is one tap from every video you meant to watch.

Every option at a glance

1. YouTube's own tools (free, built in)

The Shorts feed limit

1. Open the YouTube app and make sure you are signed in.
2. Tap You, then Settings.
3. Tap Time management, then Shorts feed limit.
4. Pick a limit. Zero is on the list, and if Shorts is the whole problem, zero is the honest number.

When you reach the limit, YouTube shows a message saying so and offers to dismiss or ignore it. That tells you what the feature is: a well-placed reminder. For some people that is enough. If you have already found yourself tapping past it, a different limit will not change the outcome — the button is still there.

On an account a parent supervises, the same limit behaves differently. The parent sets it from Family Center, and once it is reached, YouTube stops the Shorts feed for the rest of the day and resets the limit each morning. YouTube's help page says parents get the option of a zero limit from March 2026.

Show fewer Shorts on Home

On the Home feed, scroll to a grid of Shorts, tap More at the top of the grid, and choose Show fewer Shorts. YouTube describes this as seeing fewer, and that is what it does: Home thins out, and the Shorts tab stays where it was. You can undo it from My Activity. YouTube's help also says that turning off your watch history removes video recommendations from Home — a bigger change, though the page does not say what it does to Shorts.

The take-a-break reminder

In the app's settings, under General, Remind me to take a break pauses your video at an interval you choose until you dismiss it. It is off by default for adults, on for users aged 13 to 17, and it applies to all of YouTube — a general brake rather than a Shorts one.

2. On a laptop: a browser extension

On a computer the problem is far easier, because a browser lets an extension change the page before you see it. Extensions in this category hide Shorts from YouTube's pages, usually alongside other distractions — recommendations, comments, the wall of videos at the end — each behind its own switch. Unhook is one: free on the Chrome Web Store, with a Hide YouTube Shorts option, and versions for Firefox and Edge.

Where it gives way: an extension lives in one browser on one machine, and switching it off takes a couple of clicks. It also needs permission to read and change YouTube's pages — that is the job — so choose a publisher you are prepared to trust with it. For watching lectures on a laptop, it is the cleanest answer on this page.

3. On Android: Digital Wellbeing limits all of YouTube

Android's built-in tools work on whole apps. In Settings → Digital Wellbeing → App timers, set a timer on YouTube; when it runs out, the app closes and its icon dims until midnight, and getting it back early means deleting the timer. Focus mode pauses chosen apps on a schedule, with a Take a break button that unpauses them. Google notes the steps vary by device.

Both miss the point for Shorts: a timer on YouTube is a timer on the lecture you needed as well. If YouTube is only entertainment for you, block the lot and the Shorts go with it. If it is not, you need something that can tell the Shorts player apart from the rest of the app, which on Android means a blocker built on the accessibility service.

4. On iPhone: Screen Time limits all of YouTube

Apple's Screen Time sets time limits on categories of apps and on individual apps. That makes it a YouTube limit, not a Shorts limit: when the time is up, the lecture goes with the feed. Spark on iPhone works through the same Screen Time framework, and its iPhone app has no Shorts-only block — it blocks YouTube, or it does not.

So the workable iPhone setup is a split. Set YouTube's Shorts feed limit to zero for the times you do open the app, block YouTube outright during the hours that matter, and watch lectures on a laptop with an extension, where Shorts can be removed properly.

5. What the Spark app blocker does about Shorts (Android)

On Android, Spark can block Shorts inside YouTube and leave the rest of YouTube alone. It is a switch on a mode's Feeds screen. With it on, opening Shorts — from the Shorts tab, or from a Short on the Home shelf — brings up Spark's block screen, while search, subscriptions and ordinary videos keep playing. The shelf itself still shows on Home; the block bites when you open it.

A feed block applies while that mode's session is running; a second switch, Block these even when unlocked, keeps it on all the time. If you tell Spark's setup questions that short video is what pulls you in, and YouTube is installed, the plan it proposes blocks Shorts inside YouTube rather than YouTube itself — nothing is applied until you confirm it.

YouTube channels, both ways round

The same screen holds two channel lists. On the blocklist, the channels you add are blocked and everything else plays. Study Mode is the reverse: only the channels you list will play, which suits anyone whose YouTube is a handful of lecture channels and a great deal of temptation. When adding a channel, give its name as well as its @handle — the app notes that a channel saved from Shorts by handle alone can still play on the watch page.

The caveats

• Android only. On iPhone, the Feeds screen says feed blocking is Android only and suggests blocking the whole app instead.
• It can break when YouTube redesigns its app. The app says so on the same screen, and adds that fixes arrive on their own.
• It uses Android's accessibility permission to spot the Shorts player. The permission notice says what it reads is not stored and does not leave the phone.
• It works inside the YouTube app. YouTube in a phone's browser is a separate route.

Then the key, which is what makes this a block rather than another reminder. Locking is one tap in the app, or a schedule, and never needs the key — though the app will not lock until a Spark has been paired, which needs an account and a connection, once. Unlocking means getting up, going to the key and holding the phone against it for about fifteen seconds with the Spark Bluetooth key, or a tap with the Spark NFC key. Leave it in another room and getting past the block becomes a walk.

The app is free with no subscription, though it is not on Google Play yet, and the key is a one-time purchase. The Bluetooth key works with any phone Spark supports (Android 12 or later); the cheaper NFC key needs a phone with an NFC reader, which many budget Android phones lack, so check yours first. Neither key is cryptographic — the Bluetooth signal can be recorded and replayed, and the NFC key is a standard tag that can be copied — so it stops a moment of weakness, not a determined person.

What to actually do

1. Tonight, set YouTube's Shorts feed limit to zero and tap Show fewer Shorts on Home. It costs nothing, and it tells you whether a reminder is enough.
2. If you watch YouTube on a laptop, install an extension that hides Shorts there.
3. Give it a fortnight. If you are dismissing the limit most days, the reminder has become part of the ritual rather than a break in it.
4. Then change what the unlock costs. On Android, that is Spark's Shorts block with the key in another room. On iPhone, block YouTube outright during the hours that matter and keep lectures on the laptop.