Reels & Shorts Nav Blocker icon

Reels & Shorts Nav Blocker

Extension Actions

How to install Open in Chrome Web Store
CRX ID
dnjfpdhkohfannlddhaonohgdncgkmdj
Status
  • Live on Store
Description from extension meta

Watch individual Shorts and Reels without doom-scrolling. Disables next/previous nav; everything else still works.

Image from store
Reels & Shorts Nav Blocker
Description from store

Watch the Short or Reel a friend sends you — without sliding into a 40-minute session.

Most "block Shorts/Reels" extensions take a nuke-it-all approach: they hide Shorts and Reels completely, or block YouTube or Facebook entirely. That works, until a friend sends you a link. Then you have to disable the extension just to watch one clip. And once it's off, you're one swipe away from the problem you installed the extension to solve.

This extension takes the opposite approach. Shorts and Reels still work. You can open a link, watch the video, like, comment, share, visit the creator's profile — everything normal. What it blocks is just the one behavior that causes the damage: the next/previous navigation.

What's disabled on YouTube Shorts (youtube.com/shorts/…) and Facebook Reels (facebook.com/reel/…):
• On-screen next/previous buttons
• Arrow key / PageUp / PageDown navigation (plus J/K on YouTube)
• Mouse-wheel scrolling between videos
• Trackpad/touch swipes between videos
• The internal "auto-advance to the next clip" handler

What still works:
• Watching the current Short/Reel
• Like, comment, share, send, save
• Muting, play/pause, visiting profiles, following, searching
• The rest of YouTube and Facebook, untouched

When the clip ends, the feed stops there. If you want the next one, you have to go find it on purpose — and that small moment of friction is usually enough to close the tab and get back to work.

Free and open source. If it helps you, the extension's toolbar popup has a Ko-fi link for voluntary support: https://ko-fi.com/stefuuuu