YouTube introduces daily Shorts time limits to help users take control of their scrolling habits

YouTube now wants to help its users not get stuck in shorts videos forever. Because there’s hardly anything else you can lose yourself in for as long as scrolling through short videos.

Break until the next day

Users can now set a daily limit that limits the maximum time for playing shorts. Once this time has been exhausted, a notification will appear stating that Shorts usage has been paused for the day. Although this message can be clicked away, the responsibility for adhering to one’s own limits still lies with the users themselves. The principle is similar to the voluntary screen time options of other social networks: Instagram and TikTok also offer similar functions, although TikTok is the only one of the large portals that also allows this limit for web users.

In the official announcement, YouTube emphasizes the importance of Shorts as a central part of the overall user experience. At the same time, they want to give viewers more control over their consumer behavior. “Setting a scroll limit makes it possible to discover content in a targeted manner without losing track of your own time,” the company said in a statement.

For now only in the app

The new feature can be activated and customized in the account settings of the YouTube mobile app. Users can decide how many minutes or hours they want to spend on Shorts each day. According to YouTube, the feature is now being rolled out gradually – so it may take some time before all mobile devices have access to it.

YouTube also plans to integrate the time limit function into parental control options later this year. This will allow parents to specifically regulate their children’s screen time in the future. In this case, once the limit has been reached, the notifications will no longer be able to be deactivated in order to ensure a more consistent implementation of the restrictions.