How to block YouTube Shorts on iPhone
Semo is an iPhone app that blocks distracting apps by asking an AI question that quotes your own reason back to you. This page is only about YouTube Shorts.
How do you block YouTube Shorts on an iPhone?
It depends on what you mean by a block. Screen Time can limit YouTube Shorts, and you can ignore that limit if you know the passcode or never set one. Semo asks an AI question that quotes your own reason, and you can dismiss it. The steps on this page are Apple's. Semo is not on the App Store yet. Price shown in the app.
Block YouTube Shorts with iPhone Screen Time
There is no YouTube Shorts app on the iPhone home screen. Screen Time can only see the YouTube app (and, on iOS 27, a website the developer has linked). You cannot tick "Shorts" as its own limit. Any system limit that stops Shorts also stops long videos, livestreams and playlists in that same app.
iOS 26
- Accept that Shorts has no icon Look through App Limits. You will find YouTube, not YouTube Shorts. Add the limit on YouTube if you want the system to stop the app. There is nothing else to tick.
- Keep the YouTube limit from swallowing every video app When you Add Limit, open Entertainment and select YouTube only. A category-wide limit would also cap apps that are not where Shorts live.
- Treat the Shorts shelf in Safari as the YouTube site youtube.com/shorts in Safari is not covered by an iOS 26 App Limit on the YouTube icon. Read the Safari guide before you rely on the icon limit alone.
iOS 27
- The allowance still names YouTube, not Shorts Time Allowances group apps by category. Shorts do not appear as a row. Set Entertainment, or move YouTube under Manage Categories, knowing long videos are included.
- A linked YouTube site includes Shorts pages If iOS 27 counts YouTube's website with the app, the Shorts pages on that site count too. It still will not count Shorts and spare a full-length video on the same site.
Apple's steps: App Limits on iOS 26 and Time Allowances on iOS 27. A limit you set for yourself can be ignored if you know the Screen Time passcode, or if you never set one.
What YouTube Shorts's own limits do, and why they fail
YouTube's break reminder and bedtime reminder apply to the whole app. They do not have a switch labelled Shorts. The Shorts tab is a feed inside YouTube: it starts as soon as the app opens if that is where you left it, and the break dialog, when it appears, can be dismissed. Subscriptions and Watch Later are also inside the same app, so a person who wanted one lecture and a person who wanted the Shorts shelf look identical to iOS.
An example reason
Written for this page. Not a quote from a user.
I want a tutorial on YouTube, and I do not want the Shorts shelf that starts playing on its own.
How Semo helps with YouTube Shorts
Semo cannot hide the Shorts tab inside YouTube. What it can do is block the YouTube app with an AI question that quotes a reason you wrote, for example the sentence above. You set the rule in your own words ("tutorials I chose are fine, Shorts are not"). The question does not know which tab is open. It asks you to. No published study says how often people then leave.
Questions
Why can't I see YouTube Shorts in Screen Time's app list?
Because it is not installed as its own app. It is a tab inside YouTube. Limit YouTube, or do not use a system limit for this and rely on a rule you will actually answer.
If I delete the YouTube app, do Shorts stop?
Deleting the icon removes that copy of the app. youtube.com in Safari still plays Shorts unless you have also dealt with Safari. Reinstalling the app from the App Store brings the tab back.
Is a Semo rule the same as a Shorts blocker?
No. Semo does not claim a technical filter on the Shorts player. It asks an AI question that quotes your reason when the app opens.