Reels Blocker: Block Shorts

You didn't open Instagram to watch forty videos. You opened it to check one thing.

Reels Blocker closes that trapdoor. The moment a short-video player opens, it takes you straight back out — before the first video finishes loading. Your feed, your messages, your search all keep working exactly as before. Only the endless scroll goes away.

Reels Blocker is a short video blocker for Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, Facebook Reels and TikTok. It helps you stop doom scrolling and cut your screen time without deleting the apps you need.

WHAT IT BLOCKS

• Instagram Reels — returns you to your feed
• YouTube Shorts — returns you to Home
• Facebook Reels — leaves the Reels viewer and the Reels tab
• TikTok — closes the app entirely, because TikTok is nothing but short video

Each app has its own switch. Block all four, or just the one that keeps eating your evening.

HOW IT WORKS

Reels Blocker watches for the moment a short-video player appears on screen, then uses that app's own navigation to leave it — tapping the Home or Feed tab, or pressing Back. There's no forced restart, no crash, no jarring interruption. It feels like you simply changed your mind.

It's not a willpower app. There's nothing to configure, no streak to maintain, no guilt screen. You turn it on once and forget it exists.

ACCESSIBILITY SERVICE DISCLOSURE

Reels Blocker uses Android's Accessibility Service, and only for this: to detect when a short-video player is open in the apps you have chosen, and to navigate away from it. It reads screen content in memory solely to recognise those players. It does not record your screen, read your messages or passwords, or collect any data. Nothing it reads leaves your device. You can turn the service off at any time in Android Settings.

GOOD TO KNOW

• Android's accessibility permission must be granted for blocking to work — the app walks you through it.
• Blocking begins the instant you grant it. Nothing else to set up.
• Works with each app's normal updates.