FocusFeed - Block YouTube Recommendations & Shorts

About

FocusFeed is a comprehensive digital well-being extension that puts you back in control of your attention. It surgically removes the algorithmic rabbit holes, infinite scroll feeds, and engagement traps built into the world's most addictive platforms — without breaking the content you actually came to see.

🎯 Why FocusFeed?
Every major platform is engineered to steal your time. Autoplay starts the next video before you decide. The homepage feed surfaces content you never asked for. Shorts, Reels, and Stories are designed for endless scrolling. FocusFeed removes all of it, leaving you with a clean, intentional browsing experience.

📺 YouTube — Deep Control
FocusFeed gives you granular control over every distracting element on YouTube. Toggle each feature independently or choose from built-in presets:
Home & Feed

Hide the homepage recommendation feed entirely
Block the Trending / Explore page
Optionally redirect the YouTube logo to your Subscriptions feed instead of the noisy homepage
Hide the Subscriptions feed if needed

Watch Page

Remove the sidebar "Up Next" recommendations
Disable Autoplay — and keep it off even when YouTube tries to re-enable it
Hide end-screen cards and overlay cards
Remove Comments section
Hide the Live Chat panel on streams
Hide Playlists from the watch page
Block Merchandise shelf and "Support the creator" donate prompts
Hide AI-generated video summaries
Turn off video Annotations (via the player's settings menu — works on desktop and mobile)

Navigation & Discovery

Hide the Search bar (for truly distraction-free browsing)
Hide Shorts from the sidebar, homepage, and search results
Hide the "More from YouTube" section in the sidebar
Hide Stories and Community posts on channel pages
Remove notification count badges from the browser tab title (e.g., strips "(3) YouTube" → "YouTube")
Hide the notification bell in the header

One-Click Presets
Switch between three tuned configurations instantly:

Strict — Everything off. Pure focus mode.
Watch — Hides all recommendations and distractions, keeps comments visible.
Casual — Light-touch mode: keeps the feed and search, removes only the most intrusive elements.


📱 Social Media — Four Platforms Covered
FocusFeed extends its protection to your other most-visited platforms, each with their own independent on/off toggle and per-feature controls:
Facebook

Hide the main News Feed
Remove the Reels row
Hide Stories bar
Block "People you may know" and "Suggested for you" (right-rail suggestions)
Optionally hide Events and Groups sidebars

Instagram

Hide the Explore tab content
Block Reels
Remove "Suggested for you" sections
Optionally hide Stories

Twitter / X

Remove the "What's happening" Trending section
Hide "Who to follow" suggestions
Toggle off the "For You" algorithmic feed
Hide Topics suggestions

Twitch

Block recommended channels and "You might also like" suggestions
Disable channel autoplay
Remove Prime subscription offer banners

All social site features activate only when you explicitly turn the site on — there's no passive interference.

⏱ Daily Time Limits
Set a daily time budget for YouTube and take back your evenings:

Daily limit — Choose between 5 and 480 minutes per day
Grayscale mode — When your limit is hit, the page turns grayscale as a gentle but unmistakable signal
Limit banner — A dismissable banner appears at the top of the page reminding you to take a break
Session warning — Get notified mid-session when you're approaching your limit
Daily usage tracking — Background timer tracks time spent across all supported sites, per day
Reset today's usage — Wipe today's timer and start fresh at any point


📅 Focus Schedule
Block access automatically during your most productive hours:

Enable the schedule with a single toggle
Choose which days of the week the schedule applies (e.g., Monday–Friday only)
Set a custom time window (e.g., 09:00–18:00)
Outside the scheduled window, all sites work normally — no manual toggling required


🔍 Keyword & Channel Filter
Filter out specific content from your YouTube feed without hiding everything:

Block by keyword — Any video whose title contains a blocked keyword is automatically hidden from recommendations, search results, and the homepage
Block by channel — Videos from specific channels are removed from all listing views
Case-sensitive option — Toggle exact-case matching for precise filtering
Works with YouTube's SPA navigation — filters apply as you browse between pages without refreshing


🎨 Popup Interface
A clean, tabbed popup makes managing all settings easy:

YouTube tab — All YouTube toggles in one place
Sites tab — Per-platform on/off plus individual feature toggles for each social site
Time tab — Daily limit slider, grayscale toggle, session warning threshold, and usage dashboard
Schedule tab — Day-of-week picker and time range inputs
Filter tab — Keyword and channel blocklists with add/remove controls
Dark mode — The popup itself supports dark mode for night-time use
Preset buttons — Apply Strict / Watch / Casual presets directly from the popup header