How to Turn Off Shorts & Recommendations on YouTube?

If you are addicted to YouTube Shorts and recommendations like me and often get distracted by them, this article will help you eliminate this distraction. The YouTube algorithm utilizes your previous history to show you similar content that you engaged with previously, making it difficult for you to focus on productive tasks. This can lead to significant time waste, especially if the content is not informative at all.

There are two common ways to disable YouTube Shorts and recommendations: you can either disable the watch history or use an extension to hide YouTube Shorts and recommendations altogether. Disabling the watch history will prevent YouTube from suggesting content based on your previous viewing habits. Meanwhile, using the extension will simply stop YouTube from showing Shorts and recommendations.

1. Turn Off Watch History

Android/iOS

1. Open the YouTube App and tap on the profile icon from the bottom right.
2. Then, tap on Settings from the top right.
   
3. In the settings, tap Manage all history.
4. Then, tap on Controls, and then tap Turn Off.
   
5. YouTube will ask for confirmation; simply tap Pause to proceed.

Windows PC

1. Open your preferred browser.
2. Click on your profile icon from the top-right and select Manage Your Google Account.
   
3. Select Data & Privacy from the left and scroll down to the History Settings.
   
4. Select YouTube History from the listed options.
5. Click Turn Off, and then click Pause to confirm the action.
   

2. Use an Extension

If you spend more time on your PC than on mobile, this might be the best way to disable Shorts and recommendations. With an extension, you have the option to disable features individually. If you find yourself distracted by the Shorts feature, you can disable it. Similarly, if the YouTube recommendations feature distracts you, you can disable it as well.

Extensions modify the HTML of the webpage, giving you the freedom to hide anything on YouTube. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Download the Unhook Extension from the link in your browser.
   
2. Once it is downloaded, visit YouTube.com, and you should not see the recommendations and Shorts.
3. If you only want to hide Shorts, you can simply click on the Unhook extension from the top and turn off all the features except Shorts.
   
4. Once done, reload the page, and you should be good to go.

That’s all. By using the methods above, you will be able to turn off YouTube Shorts and recommendations.