What you need to know
- YouTube now lets you set Shorts usage to zero minutes, effectively limiting access from the main home feed.
- The new setting lives under Time management and adds friction by blocking the Shorts tab after the limit is hit.
- Shorts are not fully removed, as they still appear in subscriptions and can be opened via shared links.
If YouTube Shorts have been wasting your time and taking over your home feed, YouTube is finally rolling out a setting that lets you hide them, at least to some extent.
Last year, YouTube announced a feature that would let users set time limits for how long they use Shorts, and it now looks like it’s finally rolling out. As spotted (and confirmed) by The Verge, the YouTube app now includes an option to set the Shorts time limit to zero minutes.
Originally, YouTube said that the time limit would range from 15 minutes to two hours, but the company has now added an option for 0 minutes as well, which effectively lets you turn off YouTube Shorts. The company confirmed that the ‘zero minutes’ timer is live for parents and is currently rolling out to everyone.
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(Image credit: Sanuj Bhatia / Android Central)
How this works is that you go into the YouTube app settings by tapping the profile icon in the bottom right and then the Settings (gear icon) in the top right. From there, head into Time management settings and set a daily limit for Shorts. Once you enable it, a prompt will ask you to choose the duration, where you can now select zero minutes.
Once you set it to zero minutes and try to open the Shorts tab, you’ll see a pop-up saying you’ve reached your limit, along with options to go back or ignore it. It doesn’t completely remove Shorts from the app, but it does add a layer of friction to using it.
Android Central’s take
This isn’t a full-on Shorts kill switch, but honestly, I’ll take it. Adding friction is sometimes all you need to break the habit, and setting it to zero minutes might finally help me stop doom-scrolling.
It’s also worth noting that Shorts will still appear in your subscriptions feed, and you can still open them via direct links. This setting mainly affects the Shorts tab on the home page.
The feature is rolling out now, so you should see it on your device soon.
