endwhile
Guide · YouTube
How to block YouTube Shorts on Chrome
Short answer: Install Endwhile, a free Chrome extension. Any Short you open plays as an ordinary video, with no swipe feed behind it, and the Shorts shelves disappear from search results and channel pages.
How to do it
- Add Endwhile from the Chrome Web Store.
- Open YouTube. Shorts blocking is on by default.
- To fine-tune it, click the Endwhile icon. Shorts, recommendations, the home feed and like counts are separate switches.
What happens to a Short
A link to a Short still works, because sometimes a friend sends you one. It opens on the normal video page instead of the vertical player, so when it ends, nothing scrolls in after it. Shorts shelves in search results and on channel pages are hidden, so they stop competing with what you searched for.
What YouTube lets you do without an extension
- Hide the Shorts shelf for a while. On desktop, the X on the Shorts shelf hides it, but YouTube brings it back after about 30 days.
- Pause watch history. With history off, YouTube stops filling the home page with recommendations. It also breaks the features that rely on history, and Shorts are still a click away.
Neither stops the swipe feed itself. That is the part Endwhile removes.
What keeps working
Search, watch pages, channels, playlists, subscriptions and history. Endwhile removes the endless parts of YouTube, not YouTube.
Questions
Is it free?
Yes. Endwhile is free, with no account and no ads.
Does it block Shorts in the YouTube phone app?
No. Endwhile is a browser extension, so it works in Chrome, Edge and Brave on a computer. Phone apps cannot run browser extensions.
Can I still watch a Short someone sends me?
Yes. It opens as a normal video, without the swipe feed behind it.