Feed Free - Unbiased Feed (FF - UF)

Take control of your feed. Block algorithmic recommendations, shorts, reels, and more on YouTube and Instagram.

🚀 WHAT'S NEW (Updates from v1.6.1 → v1.8.1) **Focus (v1.8.1):** Unified navigation, flexible search access, and cleaner inbox layouts. - **Unified Home Redirect:** Merged Following Feed into an inline selector on the Redirect Home row—choose Following, DMs, Profile, or Saved. - **Hide Floating Messages:** Added an option to hide only the bottom-right floating Messages launcher while keeping sidebar inbox access. - **Allow Search under Hide Explore:** Keep search bar and lookup access available while blocking recommended Explore tiles and loaders. - **Full DM Notes Removal:** Completely scrubs the whole DM Notes row (including music notes, avatars, and carousel arrows) without leaving empty space. - **Multilingual Support:** Professional Dashboard and Notification hiding now support localized interfaces (including Afrikaans, subtitle banners, and hash links). - **Language-Independent Navigation:** Intercepts routes and redirects reliably on non-English accounts without needing readable cookies. - **Dark Mode Popup Fix:** Fixed select dropdown menus appearing bright white in dark mode. - **Clean Layout Restoration:** Reliably restores original styles, buttons, and layout positions whenever features are toggled off. ────────────────────────────────────────────── Take control of your social media experience and break the dopamine loops. Feed Free — Unbiased Feed (FF–UF) is a lightweight, privacy-focused digital detox browser extension designed to completely eliminate addictive algorithmic timelines, shorts, reels, and manipulative recommendations on YouTube and Instagram. Reclaim your focus, protect your mental space, and browse entirely on your own terms without getting sucked into endless scrolling. Unlike basic blockers that break when platforms update, Feed Free targets stable semantic structures, accessibility roles, and native URL paths to ensure uninterrupted focus through client-side single-page application (SPA) navigations—no page reloads required. 🚀 OUR 3-PHASE ROADMAP The extension is architected as an ongoing, deliberate development framework across three distinct operational milestones: • Phase 1: Feed Free (Current Phase) — Take back absolute control over your feed layouts. Block recommendations, feeds, likes, comments, and visual triggers on YouTube and Instagram to clear out distracting dopamine loops entirely. • Phase 2: The Lock (Behavioral Control) — Add intentional friction and lock-in options to social media usage, helping you stay committed to the limits and focus boundaries you choose. • Phase 3: The Unified Unbiased Engine (Future Core Feature) — Introduce a custom-curated, non-manipulative feed engine across supported platforms. Safely inject neutral, educational, or randomly discovered content to provide a healthy alternative timeline. 🌟 KEY FEATURES (CURRENTLY ACTIVE — PHASE 1) 📺 YOUTUBE FOCUS MODE • Hide Home Feed: Removes the homepage recommendation grid to eliminate passive scrolling before it begins. • Hide Shorts & Shorts Everywhere: Scrubs Shorts shelves from the homepage, sidebar guide, and channel profile pages. • Hide Search Shorts: Removes Shorts shelves and short-form video results from search queries, featuring a smart, auto-dismissing toast notification when results are hidden. • Hide Recommendations: Clears suggested watch-next video panels beside the player and on playlist pages while leaving your playlists intact. • Clean Player: A centered, responsive player layout (capped at 1120px with comfortable margins and rounded corners) that replaces the noisy watch sidebar while preserving native theater, fullscreen, and miniplayer sizes. • Keep Playlist Below Player: A dedicated child toggle under Clean Player to keep your active playlist organized underneath the video, or hide it for an ultra-clean single-video view. • Blur Thumbnails: Blurs video thumbnails and hover previews across the site while keeping video titles, channel avatars, and active playback crystal clear. Includes an adjustable slider to customize and save your blur strength from 1–24 px. • Hide Comments & End Screens: Dedicated controls to wipe out distracting comment threads and eliminate recommendation card overlays when videos end. • Deep Sidebar Customization: Individually hide Subscriptions, Explore/Trending, Report History (with adjacent divider cleanups), Notifications, and "More from YouTube" category blocks. • Audio Only Mode ('A'): Black out the video player while keeping audio streaming smoothly. Features a draggable on-player toggle button, optional ambient visual overlay, keyboard shortcut ('A'), and independent execution from the master switch. • Grayscale Mode ('G'): Turn YouTube black and white instantly via the popup switch or keyboard shortcut ('G'), complete with floating toast feedback. 📸 INSTAGRAM FOCUS MODE • Redirect Home (Unified Selector): Intercept the algorithmic Home feed upon opening Instagram. Choose your preferred landing destination directly from the inline selector: Following Feed (chronological posts), Direct Messages, Profile, or Saved. • Hide DMs & Intelligent Conflict Routing: Remove DM navigation (sidebar/header icons, unread count badges) and auto-redirect away from the inbox. If Redirect Home was set to Direct Messages, it automatically routes to Profile or Saved instead. • Hide Floating Messages: A child toggle under Hide DMs that hides only the bottom-right floating Messages launcher pill while keeping standard sidebar navigation and your inbox accessible. • Hide Reels: Removes Reels from navigation menus and redirects away from the endless `/reels/` scroll while keeping profile reels viewable. • Hide Explore & Allow Search: Block the Explore button and auto-redirect away from recommendation grids. Enable the child "Allow Search" option to keep the search bar and hashtag/location lookups accessible while keeping recommendation tiles and infinite loaders completely hidden. • Hide Stories (Home & Everywhere): Hide the top stories tray on your home feed, or enable "Stories Everywhere" to scrub trays, story rings, profile highlights, and direct `/stories/` paths platform-wide. • Hide Comments & Likes Count: Completely removes comment sections, comment counts, and post like counts while preserving captions and interactive Like, Comment, Share, and Save action buttons. • Hide Notes: Removes status note bubbles from profiles and completely hides the entire DM Notes carousel (including note bubbles, music tiles, avatars, and carousel arrows) without leaving blank layout gaps. • Hide Professional Dashboard: Strips creator/business metric links and profile banners across multiple languages (including translated interfaces such as Afrikaans "Professionele beheerpaneel") without disturbing profile containers or neighboring actions. • Hide Notifications: Removes notification navigation, unread badges, and floating notification summaries. • Square Profile Photos: Renders all profile pictures and story indicators with clean, soft square styling. • Grayscale Mode ('G'): Desaturates Instagram into high-contrast black and white with a quick keyboard shortcut ('G') or popup toggle. ⚙️ GLOBAL DETOX CONTROLS • Master Switch: Arm or pause all active blocking rules instantly with a single, compact ON/OFF pill switch. • Independent Appearance Controls: Audio Only Mode and Grayscale Mode operate independently of the master toggle, allowing you to enjoy your preferred audio/visual aesthetic anytime. • Sleek Modern Popup: Lightweight interface with rock-solid switch alignment, indented child options, full dark mode compatibility (including dark dropdown menus), and a bouncing double-chevron scroll indicator with edge gradient fades. • Platform Selection & Independent Reset: Automatically detects whether you are browsing YouTube or Instagram, allows manual switching on other tabs, and lets you reset settings for either platform independently. • Real-Time Multi-Tab Synchronization: Preferences update instantly across all open browser windows and tabs without delay. • Seamless SPA Navigation: Filters adapt in real time to dynamic client-side Single-Page-Application routing across both platforms without requiring page refreshes. 🔒 PRIVACY FIRST Feed Free — Unbiased Feed functions entirely locally inside your browser sandbox. It does not track, collect, store, or transmit your browsing patterns, configuration settings, or private account data anywhere. All state choices remain securely stored right on your local device. Quick repository shortcut links are baked into the dashboard's security shield for instant open-source verification.