How to Turn Off YouTube Shorts on Android (What Works, What Doesn't)
You open YouTube to watch one tutorial, thumb slips onto the Shorts tab, and it's 11pm. If you searched "turn off YouTube Shorts" you already found ten articles promising a setting. Let's save you the time: there is no official Shorts off switch on Android, not in the YouTube app and not in system settings. Below is every method people try, ranked by whether it actually works.
Doesn't work: hiding the Shorts shelf
On the home feed you can tap the X on the Shorts shelf and choose "Show fewer Shorts" — this only hides the shelf for 30 days and does nothing to the Shorts tab in the bottom bar, the Shorts that appear in search results, or the Shorts in subscriptions. It comes back automatically. People report it working "for a day" because the shelf reappears after the next app refresh on some versions.
Doesn't work: pausing watch history
Pausing watch history empties the home feed, which does make YouTube boring — but the Shorts tab still plays a generic feed. You lose personalised recommendations for long videos and keep the exact thing you wanted gone.
Partly works: the browser version
Using youtube.com in a mobile browser with a content blocker (uBlock Origin on Firefox, for example) and a filter rule that removes Shorts elements does work, and it is the only "hide" approach that genuinely hides. The cost is real: no background play, no picture-in-picture, worse video quality controls, and a browser tab instead of the app. Some people are happy with that trade; most drift back to the app within a week.
Doesn't work: modded APKs
ReVanced and similar patched clients can remove the Shorts tab entirely. They also break every few YouTube updates, require sideloading, and may violate YouTube's terms. If you're technical and okay with that, fine — but this guide is for people who want something that keeps working without maintenance.
Works: an accessibility-based blocker
This is the reliable route on Android. A blocker with the Accessibility permission watches the screen; when the Shorts player appears, it presses back. The important honesty: it doesn't hide Shorts, it just throws you back. The tab is still there, Shorts still show up in search, but you cannot stay on one. Because it reacts to what's on screen instead of patching YouTube, it survives app updates — and it works in the browser too.
Everything else keeps working: subscriptions, search, playlists, comments, background play, Premium. You only lose the vertical feed.
Setting up Unhook for Shorts
- Install Unhook and grant Accessibility permission (Settings → Accessibility → Installed apps → Unhook). The home screen should read Detection active.
- Choose a strength. Light: 10 Shorts or 5 minutes, then blocked — good if you sometimes follow a Shorts link a friend sent. Normal: 3 Shorts or 15 minutes. Strict: instant. All modes are free; nothing is behind a paywall.
- Open YouTube, tap Shorts. You're back on the home tab within a second. Same thing for Instagram Reels and TikTok if you have those installed.
"It stopped working after a day"
This is the #1 complaint about every accessibility blocker, and the cause is almost always Android revoking the permission: battery optimisation, a YouTube update, or manufacturer settings that auto-reset unused permissions. Most blockers fail silently. Unhook shows "Detection active" on its home screen and sends a notification the moment the permission drops, so you re-enable it in one tap instead of discovering it a week later. Excluding Unhook from battery optimisation reduces how often this happens.
Privacy: what an accessibility app can see
An accessibility service can read on-screen text, so trust matters. Unhook declares no internet permission — the OS will not let it send data anywhere. No account, no analytics, no cloud.
Bottom line
If you want Shorts genuinely invisible, the browser plus content blocker is your only option and it costs you the app. If you want the app with subscriptions and search but without the doom-scroll, an accessibility blocker that bounces you out is what works — and the one thing to check is that it tells you when it's off.