YouTube is adding a helpful feature to keep you from scrolling Shorts all day

We’ve all fallen down the rabbit hole. You open YouTube Shorts (or any other short-form video service) for a quick break, and suddenly, an hour has disappeared in a blur of endless scrolling. Recognizing the addictive nature of short-form video, YouTube is introducing a helpful new tool to give users more control over their viewing habits. Available as of this week, YouTube is beginning to roll out the ability for users to set a daily time limit specifically for scrolling through the Shorts feed on mobile.

How the new Shorts time limit works

This new feature is designed to be a simple, proactive way to manage your time. Here’s how it functions:

1. Users can find the new option within the main YouTube Settings menu.
2. You can set and adjust a daily limit for how much time you want to spend scrolling through Shorts.
3. Once you reach your pre-set time limit for the day, a prompt will appear, pausing your scrolling on the Shorts feed.
4. For now, this prompt is dismissible, allowing you to continue scrolling if you choose.

More control coming for parents

YouTube also announced plans to integrate this new Shorts limit into its parental controls later this year. This will give parents the ability to proactively set a Shorts time limit for their kids and teens using supervised accounts, and importantly, make that limit non-dismissible.

This new Shorts-specific limit joins YouTube’s existing suite of time management features, such as the “Take a Break” and “Bedtime” reminders. It’s another step towards helping users become more deliberate about their viewing habits and manage their time on the platform more effectively.

While Shorts are a fun and engaging part of YouTube, it’s great to see the platform providing more granular tools to help users maintain a healthy balance. Keep an eye out for this new setting to appear in your YouTube app soon.