YouTube has launched a new feature called the YouTube Shorts Timer, allowing users to set daily limits on how long they spend watching Shorts. This feature is designed to promote digital well-being by helping users manage their screen time.
We’ve all been there—planning to watch just one YouTube Short, only to realize an hour has passed. To address this issue of excessive scrolling, YouTube’s new Shorts Timer feature lets users decide how much time they want to dedicate to Shorts each day, such as 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour. Once the set time limit is reached, YouTube displays a pop-up notification informing users that their Shorts feed has been paused for the day.
However, users can choose to dismiss the alert and continue watching, meaning the feature acts as a gentle reminder to increase screen time awareness rather than enforcing a strict limit.
Currently, the Shorts Timer is rolling out on the YouTube mobile app and will be available globally to all users in the coming weeks. At this stage, the feature is not linked to parental controls, so parents cannot set time limits for their children. However, YouTube has announced that by the end of the year, the feature will extend to family accounts, enabling parents to restrict their kids from watching more videos once the limit is reached.
Why Was This Feature Introduced?
Social media apps are often blamed for encouraging doomscrolling—the habit of endlessly consuming content without breaks. Research suggests this can lead to issues like anxiety, reduced focus, and increased stress. YouTube has previously introduced digital well-being tools like the Take a Break Reminder, which prompts users to rest after 15, 30, 60, or 90 minutes, and the Bedtime Reminder, which encourages users to stop using their phones at bedtime. The new Shorts Timer specifically targets the Shorts feed, where users tend to lose the most time.
It remains to be seen whether users will take this reminder seriously or simply swipe past it to keep watching.
