Like them or hate them, YouTube Shorts are here to stay. If they wish they weren’t constantly popping up on your feed, you can do a few things to weaken their pull on your already declining attention span. YouTube’s own option lets you temporarily hide them, but you need third-party extensions to banish them forever.
Tell YouTube you are not interested in Shorts
The quickest way to remove YouTube Shorts from view on Chrome is to click the X (Not interested) button on the top-right of the Shorts row. But there are two things to note:
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This is a temporary solution, as YouTube will resume recommending Shorts after 30 days.
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The Not interested button only works for Chrome on desktop and not on the mobile apps for iOS and Android.
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Even if you remove it from the homepage, Shorts make an appearance on the sidebar when you are watching a particular video. While you can tell YouTube that you are “Not Interested” in a specific Short, you cannot remove the suggestions from view.
Credit: Saikat Basu
Making YouTube Shorts disappear on the mobile apps
You cannot remove all shorts in the apps for iOS and Android. But you can train the algorithm to stop showing you certain Shorts by selecting the three vertical dots on each short and choosing Not interested in the menu. Tapping on Report and Send feedback are options if you find certain Shorts in bad taste. I’ve had limited success with the mobile options, honestly—it’s like pushing back against a firehose.
Credit: Saikat Basu
Block YouTube Shorts with extensions
While Chrome might give you a tiny bit of control, other browsers don’t. Chrome or not, if you really want to remove YouTube Shorts, look at these browser extensions and add-ons.
ShortsBlocker (Chrome and Firefox): This extension improves your YouTube experience by hiding Shorts from your view entirely. This includes the homepage, subscriptions, search results, the navigation column on the left, and the video recommendations column on the right.
Unhook (Chrome, Firefox, and Edge): This extension gives you more control about what you want to hide on the YouTube homepage. The setting includes the option to hide YouTube Shorts along with other distractions like related videos, comments, homepage recommendations, trending tab, etc.
YouTube Shorts Blocker (Chrome): This extension removes Shorts from view from the necessary pages. But it also gives you a custom block list to selectively block content from channels you don’t want on your feed. You can choose to automatically convert Shorts videos into a regular format if you want to watch specific Shorts from some channels.
BlockYT for Safari: This Safari extension makes YouTube distraction-free by blocking Shorts, comments, and recommendations. It also works on the Safari browser on iPhones and iPads.
Like all extensions, these, too, come from third-party developers. Use them with caution and stay aware of bugs and bug fixes.
