This Safari Extension on a Mac finally blocks YouTube's worst feature

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Getting rid of my greatest bugbear of YouTube.

Eat the Shorts Safari extension on macOS
(Image credit: iMore)

If you dislike YouTube Shorts as much as I have since they debuted back in September 2020, there's a new Safari Extension that can erase them when you're in Apple's web browser on a Mac.

I've never seen the point of YouTube Shorts. I go onto YouTube on my best Mac to watch certain channels in the early morning, or during my lunch break to catch up on Shark Tank and Dragons' Den videos - if I wanted to look at ten-second videos, I'd go on TikTok or look at Stories on Instagram for something similar.

Thankfully, Eat the Shorts is here. Created by Aaron Pearce, it's a Safari extension that will erase any mention of Shorts. You can grab it for a one-time purchase of $1.99 / £1.79 on the Mac App Store. Looks like I'm not alone in my distaste for YouTube Shorts.

Eat all of our shorts

Eat the Shorts is Mac only and solves a big issue for me. I'd love to see a way that Eat the Shorts can arrive on iOS and iPadOS when I'm in YouTube's app as well. At the moment, you can hide them for thirty days by pressing on the three dots above the section, but I'd like things to go even further.

Unfortunately, the Apple App store guidelines dictate how apps interact, and it means that extensions like this can be a lot more locked down on mobile platforms. That makes things like Eat the Shorts harder to get working on Safari on iOS and iPadOS. It's not impossible, but for a one-person team you can see why it might be out of reach for now.

Regardless, Eat the Shorts is already solving YouTube's biggest problem for me as I browse the site to look for background music as I work today, and for that one-time price, it's all I need.

Daryl Baxter
Daryl Baxter
Features Editor

Daryl is iMore's Features Editor, overseeing long-form and in-depth articles and op-eds. Daryl loves using his experience as both a journalist and Apple fan to tell stories about Apple's products and its community, from the apps we use every day to the products that have been long forgotten in the Cupertino archives.

Previously Software & Downloads Writer at TechRadar, and Deputy Editor at StealthOptional, he's also written a book, 'The Making of Tomb Raider', which tells the story of the beginnings of Lara Croft and the series' early development. His second book, '50 Years of Boss Fights', came out in June 2024, and has a monthly newsletter called 'Springboard'. He's also written for many other publications including WIRED, MacFormat, Bloody Disgusting, VGC, GamesRadar, Nintendo Life, VRV Blog, The Loop Magazine, SUPER JUMP, Gizmodo, Film Stories, TopTenReviews, Miketendo64, and Daily Star.