The Shorts & Reels blocker that stops doomscrolling & brainrot. DMs stay open.
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Unreel is a reels blocker with one job: bounce you out of the bottomless feed the moment it opens — while DMs, search, subscriptions and everything else keep working.
Doomscrolling is not a willpower problem; the feed is engineered to win. So Unreel is a doomscrolling blocker that does the remembering for you. A calm block screen (sound already muted) catches the swipe and returns you to what you were doing — or turn on instant auto-back and it all happens invisibly. Stop scroll sessions at the door: you stop doomscrolling before the third clip, not after the hundredth.
WHAT IT BLOCKS — one shorts and reels blocker, separate switches
• YouTube: disable youtube shorts once — Unreel will hide shorts shelves on Home and bounce the player the moment a clip opens. Search, subscriptions and long videos stay put.
• Instagram: disable instagram reels — player and tab — while stories, posts and search keep working.
• Go wider: block Shorts and Reels together, and Unreel will hide reels and shorts previews across the two apps.
WHAT IT NEVER TOUCHES: your messages. A doomscrolling blocker should stop the feed, not your friends — chats, group chats and the clips friends send you stay reachable and watchable, free, always.
BUILT TO KEEP WORKING
A reels and shorts blocker only earns its keep if it still works next month. Most die quietly: a permission drops, an app update changes a layout, and the feed is back before you notice. Unreel is the youtube shorts blocker that watches its own health — built to remove youtube shorts on the day an update tries to sneak them back. Service checks, a dead-service alarm, selector drift alerts, and a 20-second fix if Android ever pulls the plug.
MODERATION, NOT SERMONS
• Snooze 30s / 1m / 2m when you actually choose to watch; pause protection for 5 minutes.
• Daily quota (Pro): "5 clips today, then done."
• Schedule windows: stop shorts on weekdays, disable reels at work, or remove reels after midnight — one window free, unlimited with Pro.
• Strict mode (Pro): a PIN plus 1-hour to 30-day locks you cannot sweet-talk mid-craving.
Pro is now a subscription — weekly, or yearly with a 7-day free trial — or a one-time lifetime unlock. Blocking Shorts, Reels and TikTok feeds stays free. Existing Pro buyers keep everything, forever.
THE PAYOFF
Insights show sessions stopped, what slipped through and your run of guarded days — wasted hours turning back into evenings. That is what a reels blocker is actually for: reduce screen time without deleting anything. Remove youtube shorts but keep the subscriptions; stop reels but keep the people.
CALL IT WHAT IT IS
Doom scroll, brainrot, the spiral — whatever you call it, Unreel is built to stop brain rot at the source instead of asking you to try harder. It is an anti brainrot filter and a doom scroll blocker with no lectures attached: no shame, no sermons, just a door that closes.
PRIVATE BY ARCHITECTURE
Unreel runs on Android's accessibility service and reads screen layout IDs only — never your messages, passwords or watch history — and nothing from your screen ever leaves the phone. Unreel's accessibility service also recognizes TikTok's For You and Friends feed screens by their layout IDs and covers the video area; TikTok's inbox, chats, search and profiles stay usable, and TikTok is watched only after you turn it on. No account. No ads. No data sold, because none is collected. The core is the point: you block reels and shorts free, forever; Pro is always optional.
Take the feed off autopilot: install the stop doomscrolling app that treats you like an adult, run the 60-second setup, and reduce screen time by removing the one surface that eats it. Unreel — the reels and shorts blocker that stays out of your messages and on the job. Flip it on once; what is left is YouTube and Instagram the way you actually meant to use them.