Short videos have conquered all major social media apps (cue TikTok and Instagram Reels), and YouTube is no exception. YouTube Shorts lets content creators create short vertical videos for quick and exciting content that ‘most’ users like.

how to disable youtube shorts

However, not everyone prefers mindlessly scrolling through YouTube Shorts and might want to get rid of them. Likewise, Google essentially enforced a YouTube Shorts section across all its apps and websites. Fret not, because you can disable YouTube Shorts on your smartphone using a few tricks. In this guide, we will demonstrate how to access YouTube without being troubled by the Shorts section.

Why Should You Disable YouTube Shorts?

There are different types of users who regularly search the YouTube video platform for one of the videos available there. Some of them prefer to watch longer videos that interest them and don’t notice short videos at all. If you’re one of them, you should disable YouTube Shorts. Also, YouTube now has a dedicated “Shorts” button in the navigation bar of its mobile apps, which has been met with mixed reactions from YouTube viewers. If you don’t want Shorts, we’ve got you covered.

4 Ways to Disable YouTube Shorts

While you can’t completely remove YouTube Shorts from the app, there are several ways to prevent yourself from seeing the Shorts section on your phone. Here’s how you can disable YouTube Shorts on your smartphone.

Note:
The methods described in this guide apply to both Android and iOS devices. However, some methods can only be performed on Android smartphones.

Browse YouTube’s Desktop Site In A Browser To Disable YouTube Shorts

On YouTube’s desktop site, you can remove the YouTube Shorts section from the home page. With this method, you would not see any shorts on the YouTube homepage. Here you can learn how to do the same on your smartphone.

  1. Open a web browser of your choice on your smartphone. We recommend Google Chrome on both Android and iOS for best results.
  2. Visit the YouTube website (www.youtube.com) in your web browser.
  3. The mobile version of the YouTube website will load by default. Click the three-dot menu in the address bar and select the ‘Desktop Site’ option to load the desktop version of the YouTube website.

    open youtube desktop site

  4. If you want to see personalized video recommendations and your library, we recommend that you sign in to your Google account if you are not already signed in.
  5. On the homepage, scroll down until you see the “Shorts” section. You’ll usually find it under two rows of video recommendations.
  6. To hide YouTube shorts, Click on the ‘X’ or the ‘Not interested’ button on the top-right of the Shorts panel.

    dismiss youtube shorts panel how to hide youtube shorts

Now you can browse YouTube for thirty days without being bothered by Shorts. To open the YouTube desktop page on iOS devices, select the ‘Desktop Page’ option in your browser.

Mark YouTube Shorts as ‘Not interested’

Let’s say you want to stay on the current YouTube app and not have Shorts recommendations under every video you watch. In this case, you can temporarily mark Shorts recommendations as ‘Not interested’ to disable YouTube Shorts. Here’s how to do that in the YouTube app.

  1. Open the YouTube app on your phone.
  2. Play any video you want to watch.
  3. Without switching to full-screen mode, scroll down the recommendations until you see the YouTube Shorts section.
  4. Click the three-dot menu at the top right of a Shorts video.

    open 3dot menu

  5. Now you’ll see a pop-up menu. Select the ‘Not interested’ option.

    not interested how to disable youtube shorts

  6. Repeat the process for all shorts recommendations until there are none left.

If you use this method, you won’t see any Shorts recommendations among the videos for a while, or even less in some cases. This isn’t a permanent solution to disable YouTube Shorts, but you can’t avoid what Google wants forever.

Uninstall YouTube App Updates (Android) To Disable YouTube Shorts

There is another workaround if you want to disable YouTube Shorts from anywhere in the app and are still looking for how to disable YouTube Shorts. On certain Android devices, you can uninstall updates to the YouTube app to revert to an older version. This method only works if the version of the YouTube app on your smartphone is older than the version that introduced Shorts (14.13.54). Learn how to uninstall YouTube app updates on an Android smartphone here.

  1. Open the Play Store app on your Android smartphone.
  2. Then use the search bar to search for the YouTube app.
  3. On the search results screen, select YouTube.

    search youtube app

  4. You should see an ‘Uninstall’ button along with the ‘Open’ option. Select the ‘Uninstall’ option to uninstall the updates for the YouTube app.

    uninstall youtube updates how to disable youtube shorts

  5. Finally, click the button with three dots at the top-right corner of the screen and uncheck the ‘Enable automatic updates’ option.

    disable auto updates

If your smartphone meets the above criteria, you can now browse the YouTube app freely without seeing YouTube Shorts in the app. Note that you may lose some features introduced in later versions of the YouTube app, and Google may even discontinue the older versions of the app in the future. This method may not work for all users, but it is still the most effective one.

Use YouTube ReVanced mod to Remove YouTube Shorts

YouTube ReVanced is a modded version of the official YouTube app that offers a number of additional features and customization options. It’s not available in the Google Play Store, but can be downloaded from a number of third-party websites. Other alternatives include NewPipe, SkyTube, and OGYouTube.

Here are the steps on how to disable YouTube Shorts with YouTube Revanced:

  1. Download and install the latest version of YouTube Revanced.
  2. Open the YouTube Revanced Manager app.
  3. Tap on the “Patcher” tab.
  4. Tap on “Select applications.”
  5. Tap on “YouTube”.
  6. Tap on the “Storage” tab in the bottom right corner.
  7. Select the YouTube APK file you downloaded in step 1.
  8. Tap on “Patch”.
  9. Select your preferences and tap on “Patch” again.
  10. For a quick installation, select “Recommended”. However, you should uncheck “Debugging” as it can cause problems.
  11. The “Recommended” option should automatically select the option that disables YouTube Shorts. To be sure, type “Shorts” in the search bar at the top and make sure the “Block Shorts” option is selected.

Once you follow these steps, YouTube Shorts will be disabled on your device. You can check this by opening the YouTube app and checking that the “Shorts” section is no longer visible.

Cannot Permanently Disable YouTube Shorts

While there is no permanent way to use the latest YouTube app and not see shorts in the app, you can work around it with these workarounds if you want to eliminate the short videos. Google doesn’t allow YouTube Shorts to be disabled because they help creators reach new users and have a secondary type of content to focus on. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to completely disable YouTube Shorts in the future if you use the *official* YouTube app.

FAQs on How To Disable YouTube Shorts

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You can use a workaround to mark YouTube Shorts as 'Not interested' to avoid seeing YouTube Shorts in the YouTube app on iPhone.

You can click on the 'X' or the 'Not interested' button on the Shorts section to remove Shorts on the YouTube website.

There are a few reasons why you should disable YouTube Shorts. You may not be interested in watching short videos, or you may find that they take up too much time. Also, some people have reported that YouTube Shorts cause problems with the performance of their device.

Some modded YouTube apps that allow you to disable Shorts include:

  1. YouTube Vanced
  2. NewPipe
  3. SkyTube
  4. OGYouTube
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