Hey Product Hunt 👋

I use YouTube a lot to learn—tech talks, tutorials, lectures—but I kept losing hours to autoplay and recommendations. I’d go in for one video and end up watching ten.

I didn’t want to block YouTube entirely (I need it!), so I built YouPause — a Chrome extension to make YouTube intentional again.

🎯 What it does?

YouPause removes all the usual traps:

❌ No homepage feed
❌ No recommended sidebars or end tiles
❌ No comments
❌ No nav bar that takes you to Shorts or Subscriptions
❌ Even the YouTube logo is hidden — no more mindless clicks to “Home”

Instead, you get a clean player with just:

The search bar
The video you came for
Optional toggles to bring things back if you need them

What’s different from other tools?

Simplicity-first – just 5 focused options (not 20 toggles)
Fixes the Shorts loop – Instead of removing Shorts entirely, YouPause disables the "recommended" swipe-to-next trap, so you can watch one Short… and stop there.

It’s been a huge help in reclaiming focus while still using YouTube as a learning tool. Would love to hear your feedback, suggestions, or improvements!

Thanks for checking it out 🙌