Dull – Instagram Without Reels, YouTube Without Shorts (iOS)

In plain words

Dull is an iOS app that loads Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and X while filtering out short-form video content like Reels and Shorts using CSS and JavaScript injection. Designed for users who want to access these platforms' core features, such as direct messaging, without getting drawn into endless short-form videos, it also includes grayscale mode, time limits, and usage tracking. The app requires ongoing maintenance as platforms frequently change their underlying code structure.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Dull loads Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and X with the addictive parts already stripped out. No Reels. No Shorts. No algorithmic feeds. What stays: posts, Stories, DMs, subscriptions, long-form videos — everything you actually opened the app for. What else: daily time limits, quiet hours, friction gates before opening, grayscale mode, usage tracking. Optional PIN lock and 24-hour commitment delay so you can't undo your own rules at midnight. Not a wellness app. Just a filter.

A filtered browser for Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, X, and Reddit. Strips Reels, Shorts, and algorithmic feeds. Time limits, grayscale, on-device.

5 platforms. One browser. Strips out Reels, Shorts, algorithmic feeds, and ads — then adds time limits , friction gates , and usage tracking so you stay in control. Everything runs on your phone, nothing phones home. Same apps. Same accounts. Minus the parts designed to keep you stuck. Want the full per-platform list? See exactly what Dull removes and keeps . Not one big restriction. A bunch of small, adjustable ones. Use what works. Ignore the rest. This is a game-changer!! I was wasting hours of my life every day due to shorts harmfully injected in my previously innocuous app. The thing is, they are easy to quit unlike real drugs, no withdrawal symptoms. Just my time back thanks to this…from getdull.app

In the maker’s words, at launch

I kept deleting and redownloading Instagram because I couldn't stop watching Reels but needed the app for DMs. Tried screen time limits, just overrode them. So I built this. Dull loads Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and X and filters out short-form content with a mix of CSS and JS injection. MutationObserver handles…

• 
  I built an app to block Shorts and Reels2025 · scrollguard.app · ▲690

  I wanted to find a way to use Instagram without ending up scrolling for two hours every time I open the app to see a friend's story. Most screen time apps I found focus on blocking the app itself instead of the addictive feed, so I created this app to allow me to keep using the "healthy" and "social" features and block the infinite scrolling (Reels) After implementing the block on Instagram Reels, I got addicted to YouTube Shorts and Reddit feed. So, I extended the app to cover these as well. To avoid replacing the scrolling for regular feeds, I also added a feature that shows a pop-up when…

• 
  Instagram.css2018 · picturepan2.github.io · ▲446

  Complete set of Instagram filters in pure CSS

• 
  Panols 2.02019 · apps.apple.com · ▲254

  Tell a panoramic story with your instagram grid.

• 
  Stop Reels2025 · chromewebstore.google.com · ▲163

  Hey HN, I just launched a free Chrome extension called Stop Reels — it blocks Reels/short videos on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, without breaking other features like messaging or the regular feed. Why I built it Like many people, I found myself endlessly scrolling Reels even when I only opened the apps for something specific. The algorithms are too good at hijacking attention. There are tools to block entire sites, but none I found that just surgically block Reels and Shorts — and leave the rest of the platform functional (DMs, posts, marketplace, etc). So I built…

• 
  Edits by Instagram2025 · creators.instagram.com · ▲252

  A video creation app for easy editing & sharing

• 
  JavaScript Instagram-like Filters2012 · github.com · ▲127

  Instagram-like image filters in pure JavaScript. Contribute to alexmic/filtrr development by creating an account on GitHub.

• 
  Lofi Cities – Pixel-art city nights with browser-generated lofi▲319

  Endless lofi beats composed live in your browser, over pixel-art nights in Paris, Tokyo, New York, Hong Kong, Sydney, San Francisco and more. Free, no sign-up.

  Work · 24d ago · loficities.com

• 
  Smooth Recorder▲257

  Mac screen recordings that look edited when you hit stop

  Work · 18d ago · smoothrecorder.com

• 
  Figma Specs▲220

  A container for your context that lives on the Figma canvas

  Work · 3d ago · figma.com

• 
  The rarest tech books and docs you've probably never read▲190

  Work · 12d ago · readrare.com

• 
  Brila▲1,364

  One-page websites from real Google Maps reviews

  AI · Apr 2026 · brila.ai

• AG
  A game where you build a GPU▲964

  Thought the resources for GPU arch were lacking, so here we are

  Life & fun · Apr 2026 · jaso1024.com

• 
  I built a tiny LLM to demystify how language models work▲915

  Built a ~9M param LLM from scratch to understand how they actually work. Vanilla transformer, 60K synthetic conversations, ~130 lines of PyTorch. Trains in 5 min on a free Colab T4. The fish thinks the meaning of life is food. Fork it and swap the personality for your own character.

  AI · Apr 2026 · github.com

• 
  Fathom 3.0▲800

  AI meeting notes: now bot-free, in ChatGPT & Claude + more

  AI · Apr 2026 · fathom.ai

• 
  Brutalist Concrete Laptop Stand (2024)▲786

  I made a laptop stand out of solid concrete, in the style of brutalist architecture, with themes of urbex and urban decay

  Life & fun · Apr 2026 · sam-burns.com

• 
  I built a frontpage for personal blogs▲783

  With social media and now AI, its important to keep the indie web alive. There are many people who write frequently. Blogosphere tries to highlight them by fetching the recent posts from personal blogs across many categories. There are two versions: Minimal (HN-inspired, fast, static): https://text.blogosphere.app/ Non-minimal: https://blogosphere.app/ If you don't find your blog (or your favorite ones), please add them. I will review and approve it.

  AI · Apr 2026 · text.blogosphere.app