YouTube introduces new way to limit shorts, control screen time

California (Web Desk): YouTube has long been considered a major platform for video content, where users have traditionally watched long-form videos.

However, in 2020, the platform introduced short-form videos called “Shorts,” following the trend popularised by TikTok.

While many users enjoy watching brief videos, not everyone prefers this type of content.

Experts and users have also pointed out that Shorts can become highly engaging, and once scrolling begins, it can be difficult to stop, often leading people to spend hours watching them.

The good news is that users can manage their YouTube feed and disable Shorts on their smartphones. After enabling this setting, short videos will no longer appear in the YouTube app.

Although YouTube does not offer a direct “Turn Off Shorts” option, there is a feature that allows users to limit and reduce the appearance of Shorts through the app’s time management settings. This option is available on both Android and iOS devices.

To disable Shorts, open the YouTube app on your phone and tap the “You” tab at the bottom. Then, select the gear icon at the top to access Settings. From there, go to the “Time Management” option and enable the “Shorts Feed Limit” feature. Set the limit to zero minutes.

After completing these steps, the Shorts section will no longer appear while scrolling through the Home feed. However, the Shorts tab at the bottom menu will remain visible. Short videos will only open if the user chooses the “Ignore limit for today” option.

It is important to note that this feature is currently not available on the desktop version of YouTube.