Porch Moth: a pause before Shorts and Reels

A few seconds’ pause before YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. Then you choose: “I’m out” or go on. No account, no tracking.

Short-video feeds are easy to start and hard to stop. Porch Moth puts a few seconds’ pause in front of YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels on your computer, so the next video is your choice, not the feed’s. It isn’t a blocker: you can always go on. HOW IT WORKS • Open a Short or a Reel and the tab goes to your Porch Moth pause page first. • Morris the moth, who gave up flying into lamps, waits with you for a few seconds. • Then it’s up to you. “I’m out” takes you away. “Open it anyway”, a reason and “Let me in” take you to the video. • After that, Shorts and Reels open without another pause until your cooldown ends: 15 minutes, or anything from 2 to 120 that you choose. WHAT IT LEAVES ALONE • Home pages, ordinary videos, posts, messages, YouTube Music and YouTube Studio. • Everything, until you set it up: it does nothing until you choose your pause page on its options page. One button sets porchmoth.com. PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No account, no analytics, no network requests of its own. • No record of what you watch. On your computer it keeps three things: your pause page’s address, your cooldown, and when a “Let me in” ends. • It adds nothing to the pages of either site and reads nothing on them. • Whoever hosts your pause page can see that it was opened, but not which video you came from: that part of the address stays in your browser. ON YOUR PHONE Porch Moth works on phones without an extension. The setup guide at porchmoth.com shows how to put the same pause in front of TikTok, Reels and Shorts. TikTok on a computer isn’t covered. Porch Moth is free. It is a small, independent project, and it has not been tested in a study of its own: what is and isn’t known about pauses like this is on porchmoth.com/evidence. Porch Moth is a habit tool. It does not diagnose, treat or prevent any condition. Porch Moth is independent and isn’t made, endorsed or sponsored by YouTube, Google, Instagram or Meta.