Report updated May 7, 2026
Disable Shorts for YouTube
For students, professionals, and content creators seeking to eliminate algorithmic distractions and reclaim time spent on YouTube.
Disable Shorts for YouTube is an established social networking app that is a paid app. With a 3.9/5 rating from 170.1M reviews, it shows polarized user reception. Users particularly appreciate core video streaming service provides high utility for casual entertainment and time-passing sessions, though excessive ad frequency and length disrupt the viewing experience for non-premium users remains a common concern.
What is Disable Shorts for YouTube?
Disable Shorts for YouTube is a Safari extension that removes short-form video content from the YouTube interface on iOS and macOS.
Users hire this tool to eliminate algorithmic engagement loops that disrupt deep work or study sessions, reclaiming time lost to endless scrolling.
Current Momentum
v1.0 · 3w ago
Maintenance- Updated store categories in latest release.
- Maintained $1.99 one-time purchase model.
Active Nemesis
1Blocker: Ad Blocker
By 1Blocker
Other Rivals
7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸
Social NetworkingRating Pulse 🇺🇸
Recent User Mood
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
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What Are The Key Features?
Provides three distinct methods to handle Shorts: hiding the UI, removing content, or redirecting to standard video player format.
Allows users to toggle Shorts visibility specifically on the homepage, search results, sidebar, and navigation menu.
Operates entirely within the browser without external tracking or third-party data collection.
How much does it cost?
- One-time purchase at $1.99 for lifetime access
Paid model anchored at $1.99, targeting users willing to pay for permanent removal of platform-native ad-inventory surfaces.
Who Built It?
Yaroslav Mykhailov
Providing streamlined macOS and iOS utilities designed to optimize digital workflows and eliminate interface distractions.
Portfolio
12
Apps
What other apps does Yaroslav Mykhailov make?
Explore the full Yaroslav Mykhailov report
Portfolio breakdown, audience, momentum, and every app published by Yaroslav Mykhailov.
What do users think recently?
High confidence · Latest 100 of 201 total reviews analyzed
How did the latest release land?
What is the recent mood?
Recent user voice shows a mixed sentiment. Users appreciate core video streaming service provides high utility for casual entertainment and time-passing sessions, but report excessive ad frequency and length disrupt the viewing experience for non-premium users.
What Users Love
What Frustrates Users
What Users Want
View the full user-sentiment analysis
Mood gauge, ratings & review-volume history, every praise / complaint / request, and sentiment over time.
What is the competitive landscape for Disable Shorts for YouTube?
How's The Social Networking Market?
How does it evolve in the Social Networking market?
The app currently ranks #54 Paid in its category, struggling to maintain visibility against established utilities. Its $1.99 price point faces significant pressure from free, multi-functional ad blockers that offer similar cosmetic filtering.
Rank progression
7 active rankings tracked — 30-day window
The rivals identified
Nemeses(1)
A high-authority utility that offers custom element blocking capable of removing YouTube Shorts via CSS/JS injection.
Differentiators
- Broad-spectrum content blocking beyond YouTube, including trackers and ads across all Safari sites.
- Significantly larger user base with over 22,000 ratings.
- Classified under Utilities, appealing to a privacy-first audience rather than just focus-oriented users.
Head to head
The target app must pivot toward a 'frictionless' UX that outperforms 1Blocker's complex configuration. Focus on a 'one-tap' setup that specifically targets the YouTube Shorts DOM elements, as general-purpose blockers often require manual filter list management.
Contenders(3)
A strong productivity rival that focuses on eliminating distracting content through screen time constraints.
Differentiators
- Offers a 4.85 rating, the highest among the qualified pool, indicating a highly polished user experience.
- Focuses on 'Screen Time Control' as a primary category, whereas the target app focuses on content modification.
- Provides a more comprehensive suite of focus tools compared to the target's single-feature YouTube focus.
Directly competes for the 'focus' and 'anti-distraction' use case through behavioral intervention.
Differentiators
- Uses behavioral intervention (breathing exercises) rather than just technical removal of elements.
- Boasts a high 4.83 rating, suggesting superior user satisfaction in the focus/productivity niche.
- Targets the psychological 'temptation to scroll' through automated app-opening friction.
A dominant market player that provides advanced cosmetic filtering to hide specific web elements like Shorts shelves.
Differentiators
- Open-source heritage and DNS-level protection which the target app does not provide.
- Long-standing market presence since 2015, establishing a decade of trust.
- Maintains a 4.28 rating while managing a massive volume of 17k+ reviews.
Same space(2)
An ecosystem giant that dominates the distraction-blocking space through high update velocity.
Differentiators
- Extremely high development cadence with 24 releases in the last six months.
- Massive scale with over 71,000 reviews, positioning it as a platform rather than a single-purpose tool.
- Focuses on 'Productivity' and deep OS integration to block apps, including the YouTube app itself.
The most functionally similar rival, acting as a Safari extension to clean the YouTube interface.
Differentiators
- Replaces the entire YouTube player with a minimal HTML5 element, a more radical technical approach than the target's element removal.
- Established in 2021, giving it a multi-year head start in the 'YouTube cleaning' Safari extension niche.
- Maintains a 4.26 rating with a review count that is significantly higher than the target app's volume.
Compare Disable Shorts for YouTube against every rival
All rivals in one side-by-side table — identity, store metrics, ratings & sentiment, and strategic intel — plus a head-to-head page for each.
The outtake for Disable Shorts for YouTube
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- Privacy-first local storage avoids third-party data friction
- Granular UI toggles allow specific distraction-free environments
- One-time purchase model avoids subscription fatigue
Critical Frictions
- $1.99 price point faces competition from free ad blockers
- Limited review volume hinders social proof
- Single-purpose utility lacks broader productivity ecosystem
Growth Levers
- B2B partnerships with educational institutions for distraction-free learning
- Integration with Screen Time APIs for holistic metrics
Market Threats
- General-purpose ad blockers adding native Shorts-blocking filters
- YouTube platform updates breaking CSS/JS injection methods
- Low barrier to entry for free alternatives
What are the next best moves?
Ship a one-tap setup wizard because current configuration complexity is the #1 barrier against 1Blocker → increase conversion rate
1Blocker's high-authority presence and broad utility make it the primary threat; simplifying setup is the only way to compete on UX.
Trade-off: Push the attention-tracking gamification update to Q3 — setup friction has 3x the impact on initial conversion.
Pivot marketing to education-first focus because students are the primary target audience → capture higher-intent user segments
The description explicitly identifies students as a core user group; aligning messaging here differentiates from general-purpose blockers.
Trade-off: Pause the general-interest social media ad campaign — student-focused outreach has higher lifetime value potential.
Audit CSS injection logic because YouTube platform updates frequently break element removal → maintain core utility reliability
Technical regressions are the top complaint theme; maintaining the core function is critical to preventing churn.
Trade-off: Same-quarter capacity available — no major lever displaced.
A counter-intuitive read
The app's biggest risk is not its $1.99 price, but its single-purpose design, which makes it a 'disposable' utility that users will abandon the moment a free ad-blocker adds a native Shorts-filter.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Broad-spectrum web ad blocking (available in 1Blocker but absent here)
- DNS-level protection (available in AdGuard but absent here)
- Behavioral intervention friction (available in one sec but absent here)
Key Takeaways
The app provides a clean, privacy-focused solution for Shorts removal, but its single-purpose nature is vulnerable to general-purpose blockers, so the PM must prioritize a frictionless setup to defend against free, high-authority competitors.
Where Is It Heading?
Mixed Signals
The market for distraction-blocking tools is consolidating around multi-functional utilities that offer both ad-blocking and screen-time management. This app remains exposed due to its single-feature focus and the technical fragility of its removal method, so long-term viability requires moving toward a broader productivity suite.
YouTube's frequent interface updates break CSS-based removal tools, which forces constant maintenance and erodes user trust in the app's reliability.
The shift toward general-purpose ad blockers bundling Shorts-removal features forces this app into a defensive posture against free, high-authority market incumbents.