If you’ve ever opened YouTube to watch one video and somehow ended up 45 minutes deep into random shorts, you’re not the only. Fortunately, YouTube’s latest update is a lifeline to stop users from falling down the Shorts rabbit hole ever again.
To that effect, YouTube is rolling out a new setting on iOS and Android that lets you set your daily Shorts limit to zero minutes. So the moment you tap the Shorts tab, a message appears telling you you’ve hit your limit, and that’s that.
Previously, when YouTube introduced its Shorts feed timer a few months back, the lowest you could set it for was 15 minutes. That was helpful, sure, but let’s be honest – 15 minutes of Shorts is still plenty enough time go down a rabbit hole. The new zero-minute option is a proper off switch, and it’s available for both adults managing their own screen time and parents setting limits for their kids.
That said, Shorts are not gone altogether – you can still find individual Shorts on a creator’s profile page. The setting specifically kills the Shorts feed and tab. But for anyone who’s watched their homepage turn into a wall of short-form content they never asked for, this is a much appreciated new setting.
YouTube has leaned hard into Shorts as its answer to TikTok, and by most measures it’s worked. But at the same time, the endless scroll has frustrated a vocal chunk of YouTube users. This won’t satisfy everyone, but it’s the most control YouTube has handed users yet.
To find it: Open the app, go to Settings, tap Time Management, then Shorts feed limit.