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

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

by kasparnoor·Apr 1, 2026·153 points·123 comments
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AI Analysis

●●SolidSolve My ProblemCozy

MutationObserver handles lazy-loaded Reels when CSS alone fails.

Strengths
  • •On-device processing means no accounts, no servers, no data leaving your phone.
  • •Friction gates like math problems turn reflexive scrolling into deliberate choices.
  • •Honest about the cat-and-mouse maintenance burden when platforms change DOM.
Weaknesses
  • •Competes with Opal, One Sec, and Freedom which already have large user bases.
  • •Filter breakage is inevitable as Instagram and YouTube obfuscate class names.
Category
Productivity
Target Audience

Social media users trying to reduce doomscrolling

Similar To

Opal · One Sec · Freedom

Post Description

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 anything that lazy-loads after the page renders, which is most of the annoying stuff since these platforms love to load content dynamically.

The ongoing work is maintaining the filters. Platforms change their DOM all the time, Instagram obfuscates class names, YouTube restructures how Shorts appear in the feed, etc. It's a cat-and-mouse thing that never really ends.

Also has grayscale mode, time limits, and usage tracking.

Happy to answer questions.

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