# Unhook 48 Hacker News commenters recommended Unhook and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Hides YouTube Shorts, recommendations, comments and home feed, leaving subscriptions and search. Caveat: it hasn't been updated in years and some options are broken. ## Why people recommend it - Hides Shorts and recommendations (9 comments): "There is a plugin called Unhook. It allows to remove shorts, recommendation feed, or even set subscriptions as your default page." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45801798)) "does a very good job of hiding various parts of YouTube (including Shorts) that you don't want to see/access" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49450560)) "You can hide shorts, comments, recommendations, the home page feed, and more." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47787303)) - Leaves only subscriptions and search (6 comments): "At this point, my YouTube experience is just the channels I subscribe to, and the video player. It reduced my usage to almost zero." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47390108)) "I use the excellent Unhook (with Ublock Origin) which turns the YT home page into a search box and little else" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49033864)) "No suggestions, no shorts, and no comments. Just the videos from creators I subscribed to." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46409842)) - Toggle each YouTube section separately (5 comments): "Unhook lets you independently toggle visibility of the home feed, the rec sidebar" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47019692)) "You can select which parts of YouTube you want to remove (e. g. Shorts)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48020274)) "lets you disable features on YT (granular though the default is good)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48501625)) - Cuts down time spent (3 comments): "At this point, my YouTube experience is just the channels I subscribe to, and the video player. It reduced my usage to almost zero." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47390108)) "Really effective, I kindof can't believe how much time I spent getting suckered into watching video essays" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48446499)) "Both work flawlessly, and reduced my YouTube usage to almost zero." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48306957)) ## What people warn about - No recent updates; some options broken (5 comments): "Unhook hasn't been updated in years and doesn't work for shorts anymore" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47018138)) "it hasn't been updated since 2024 and is slowly breaking" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47018120)) "Some of the Unhook options are broken nowadays I think." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47018301)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [SingleFile](https://hackerapproved.com/p/singlefile.md): 34 recommend - [Vimium](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vimium.md): 29 recommend - [Sidebery](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sidebery.md): 27 recommend - [Redirector Firefox extension](https://hackerapproved.com/p/redirector-browser-extension.md): 24 recommend - [Tree Style Tab](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tree-style-tab.md): 23 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Unhook", https://hackerapproved.com/p/unhook/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).