Frequently asked questions

Yes, completely free. No account, no sign-up, no subscription required.

Open the Unbinge popup → Distraction Settings → toggle Shorts off to hide the Shorts shelf. With the filter mode on Explore or Focus, Shorts pages are blocked outright on every profile. Step-by-step: YouTube without Shorts.

Open the popup → Distraction Settings. You can independently toggle off recommendations, comments, end-screen cards, trending, the homepage feed, autoplay, and notifications.

Browser extensions work on desktop Chrome and Edge. On mobile, YouTube Kids is the safest option.

Off does nothing — YouTube behaves normally. On Explore and Focus, watch pages, channel pages, /embed/ (including youtube-nocookie iframes on classroom sites and slides), /live/, and Shorts URLs are checked against the approved list; anything unapproved shows a blocked page. Home, Search, and Subscriptions stay open; on Explore and Focus the home feed stays hidden and playing a video from there is still checked. Account and sign-in pages stay available.

Kids installs require a parent PIN (set at first-run setup) to switch profiles, loosen the filter mode, or un-hide Shorts and the home feed. General (13+) can optionally add the same lock. Changing the PIN always requires the current PIN. Unlock lasts 5 minutes, then sensitive settings re-lock. The extension can still be removed from Chrome settings; for stricter control, use a supervised Chrome profile or managed browser policies.

Kids installs always set a 4–8 digit PIN during setup; General (13+) can opt into one. Sensitive settings stay locked until a parent taps Unlock and enters that PIN. Setting a PIN does not unlock the session. Changing the PIN always needs the current PIN, even if settings are already unlocked. Unlock lasts 5 minutes, then sensitive settings re-lock.

Anyone can suggest a channel or video from the global review page without installing Unbinge. If you already have the extension, you can also submit from the popup. Our team manually reviews each request for age-appropriateness and educational value before adding it to the global list.

If you have the extension, paste the YouTube link in the "Add channel" field inside the popup. It's approved locally on your device instantly, and automatically submitted for global review. Without the extension, use the global review page. If approved, it gets a 🔵 blue badge visible to all users.

A 🔵 badge on a channel means it has been manually verified by our team as safe and educational.

No. The extension stores all settings locally on the device. Channel requests only send the channel URL — no names, emails, or identifiers. See our privacy policy.

Manual sync has a 6-hour cooldown. The button shows a countdown timer until it's available again. The whitelist also auto-syncs once a week.

Right-click the Unbinge icon in your toolbar → Remove from Chrome/Edge/Firefox. We'd love to hear why — visit our leaving page to leave optional feedback.

No. Unbinge is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by YouTube, Google, or Alphabet.