Report updated Apr 14, 2026
Disable Shorts for YouTube
For students, professionals, and content creators seeking distraction-free YouTube browsing and digital wellbeing.
Disable Shorts for YouTube is a well-regarded social networking app that is a paid app. With a 3.9/5 rating from 169.8M reviews, it maintains solid user satisfaction. Users particularly appreciate entertainment & utility, though technical & access issues remains a common concern.
What Is Disable Shorts for YouTube?
Current Momentum
v1.0.1 · 3d ago
MaintenanceThe app is currently in maintenance mode, with the most recent update focusing on in-product education rather than core feature expansion.
Active Nemesis
1Blocker: Ad Blocker
By 1Blocker
Other Rivals
7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸
Recent User Mood 🇺🇸
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
How Is The App's Momentum Right Now?
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What Are The Key Features?
Offers Hide, Remove, and Redirect modes to handle Shorts according to user preference
Allows toggling Shorts visibility for specific areas like the homepage, search results, and sidebar
Provides metrics on how many times the extension has prevented Shorts-related distractions
Who is it for & how much does it cost?
Target Audience
Students, professionals, and content creators seeking distraction-free YouTube browsing and digital wellbeing.
Pricing
Paid- One-time purchase of $4.99 for lifetime access
Positions itself as a premium utility that avoids subscription fatigue, contrasting with competitors like Opal or one sec.
Who Built It?
What other apps does Yaroslav Mykhailov make?
Debloat Face AI: Food & Water
Health & Fitness
Pin Window: Rectangle Pro
Utilities
Dark Reader for Safari.
Productivity
CleanUp AI: Storage Cleaner
Utilities
What do users think recently?
High confidence · 51 reviews analyzed
What is the recent mood?
“Recent user voice shows a excited sentiment. Users appreciate entertainment & utility, but report technical & access issues and excessive advertisements.”
What Users Love
The best app to time pass
One of the best videos app!
What Frustrates Users
whenever I login this app .. always asking to update this app
it's always telling me to sign in I've already signing
3 ads per video? I don't think you guys are that poor.
advertisments come in between continuously after 4-5 mins
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?
| Chart | Rank | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Paid | #54 | ▼8 |
The rivals identified
The Nemesis
- -
Weaker sentiment at 48/100 — but still a direct threat
- -
Broad-spectrum content blocking beyond YouTube, including trackers and ads across all Safari sites.
- -
Significantly larger user base with over 12,000 ratings compared to the target app's 51.
Contenders
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 and data compared to the target's more recent entry.
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.
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.
Peers
Extremely high development cadence with 26 releases in the last six months.
Massive scale with nearly 70k reviews, positioning it as a platform rather than a single-purpose tool.
First-party data access and 2.2M+ reviews, representing the official YouTube ecosystem.
Updated as recently as March 30, 2026, with 25 releases in the last six months.
Vinegar - Tube Cleaner
★4.3 (745)And a Dinosaur
The most functionally similar rival, acting as a Safari extension to clean the YouTube interface with 745 reviews.
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.
The outtake for Disable Shorts for YouTube
SWOT Analysis
Core Strengths
- Granular UI control (homepage vs search)
- Privacy-first architecture (local storage only)
- One-time purchase model
- Unique 'Redirect' mode for Shorts URLs
Critical Frictions
- Limited to Safari browser only
- Low rating count (1) on iOS compared to rivals
- Technical login/update loops
- No ad-blocking capabilities despite high user demand
Growth Levers
- Expand to Chrome/Firefox browsers
- Integrate 'Clean Player' features to compete with Vinegar
- Market specifically to 'Creator' niche for research focus
Market Threats
- YouTube UI updates breaking element selectors
- 1Blocker or AdGuard adding specific 'Shorts' presets
- Downward ranking trend (#54 Paid, ↓8)
What are the next best moves?
Resolve Login/Update Loops
Sentiment data identifies 'Technical & Access Issues' as a medium-frequency complaint that prevents users from accessing the paid product.
Implement Basic Cosmetic Ad-Blocking
The #1 complaint theme is 'Excessive Advertisements'; addressing this would significantly increase the perceived value of the $4.99 price point.
Market 'Redirect Mode' as a Core Differentiator
Unlike Nemesis (1Blocker) which just hides elements, this app can convert Shorts to regular videos—a unique feature for users who want the content but not the addictive UI.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- DNS-level protection (available in AdGuard)
- Behavioral intervention/breathing exercises (available in one sec)
- HTML5 player replacement (available in Vinegar)
- Broad-spectrum site blocking (available in 1Blocker)
Key Takeaways
Disable Shorts for YouTube is a solid niche utility, but its $4.99 price point is threatened by broad-spectrum blockers like 1Blocker. To survive, the PM must fix the technical login friction and consider adding 'Clean Player' features to address the high user frustration regarding ads.
Where Is It Heading?
Stable
Ranked #54 Paid (↓8) — indicating declining momentum in the US Paid charts.
Recent updates focused on 'Updated categories' (Dec 2025) rather than new feature expansion.
Maintains a 'Positive' mood label despite technical complaints, suggesting high core value.