YouTube has added a small but very satisfying option to its time management controls: a zero-minute limit for Shorts. Set it, and the app stops showing the Shorts feed once you hit that limit – which, at zero, means you never really get started.
The YouTube Shorts feed timer is rolling out on Android and iOS, and it applies to regular adult accounts as well as parental controls. That makes it a rare self-control feature that actually follows through, instead of politely asking you to behave while keeping the addictive stuff one thumb-swipe away.
How the YouTube Shorts feed limit works
YouTube says the lowest timer used to be 15 minutes, so zero is a meaningful new floor. Once the limit is reached, the Shorts tab shows a notification that you’ve ”reached your Shorts feed limit,” and in testing the setting also removed Shorts from the Home screen.
- Platform: Android and iOS
- Lowest limit: zero minutes
- Result: Shorts feed stops appearing, including from Home in tests
A parental control that adults will use too
The feature was first introduced as a way for parents to cap how long kids scroll through Shorts, with zero minutes promised later. Now that it’s live for parents and rolling out more broadly, the obvious audience is bigger: anyone trying to cut down on a feed that is designed to outlast your attention span.
That puts YouTube in the same camp as other platforms that have been quietly adding limits, reminders, and screen-time nudges after years of pushing endless feeds. The difference is that this one is blunt, and blunt is refreshing.
How to turn off Shorts in the app
The setting lives in the YouTube app under ”time management.” From there, toggle on the Shorts feed limit and choose a time – including zero if you want Shorts out of sight and out of mind.
Whether YouTube treats this as a permanent control or a quietly tolerated escape hatch is the interesting part. If the rollout sticks, expect more platforms to borrow the idea: let users opt out of the most bingeable surface, then act surprised when they actually do.