How to Remove the YouTube Home Feed (2026)

Install Unhook and toggle off "Home feed" — the YouTube homepage becomes a search bar with no recommendations in under two minutes. News Feed Eradicator is the alternative if you want the homepage completely blank rather than just empty. Both are free browser extensions. YouTube has no native option to disable home recommendations as of May 2026.

Last verified: May 26, 2026 · Reading time: 4 min · Time to set up: 2 minutes

TL;DR

• YouTube has no native home feed toggle — a browser extension is required.
• Unhook: Homepage becomes a clean search bar. Subscriptions, search, and channels still work normally.
• News Feed Eradicator: Homepage replaced with a quote or blank page entirely.
• Your Subscriptions feed at youtube.com/feed/subscriptions is unaffected by both.
• Doesn’t work in the native YouTube app — for that, see the mobile section below.

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Why the home feed is the problem

The YouTube homepage is an algorithmically-curated attention trap: every video shown is selected to maximize the probability you’ll click it and stay on YouTube longer. It’s not showing you your best options — it’s showing you the options most likely to capture 30 more minutes of your session.

If you open YouTube to watch a specific video and find yourself watching something unrelated 10 minutes later, the home feed is usually the mechanism. You navigated to YouTube, saw something attention-catching before you even searched, and clicked it.

Removing the home feed breaks this entry point. You land on a search bar and your subscription list. You navigate with intention rather than being redirected by the algorithm.

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Method 1 — Unhook (recommended)

Unhook removes specific YouTube UI surfaces without affecting the rest of the site.

Install Unhook:

• Chrome Web Store
• Firefox Add-ons

Configure it:

1. Click the Unhook icon in your toolbar.
2. Toggle off Home feed.
3. Optional: also toggle off Shorts, Sidebar, End screens, Autoplay.

After toggling, navigate to youtube.com. The recommendation grid is gone. You see the search bar, your Subscriptions link, and nothing else.

What still works: Search, Subscriptions feed (youtube.com/feed/subscriptions), channel pages, your Watch Later playlist, YouTube History, individual video playback. Nothing intentional is removed — only the algorithmic recommendation surfaces.

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Method 2 — News Feed Eradicator (nuclear option)

News Feed Eradicator replaces the entire YouTube homepage with a blank page or an inspirational quote. It’s a harder removal — the algorithm doesn’t get any surface area at all on the homepage.

Install News Feed Eradicator:

• Available for Chrome and Firefox from the extension stores.

Configure it:

1. Click the News Feed Eradicator icon.
2. Enable YouTube in the platform list.
3. Navigate to youtube.com — the homepage is replaced.

When to choose this over Unhook: If you want zero algorithmic presence on the YouTube homepage, even the minimal structure that Unhook leaves (search bar, subscription links). News Feed Eradicator is more opinionated.

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What to bookmark instead

After removing the home feed, navigate YouTube through these bookmarks instead:

• youtube.com/feed/subscriptions — videos from channels you follow, newest first, no algorithm.
• youtube.com/feed/library — your history, Watch Later, and playlists.
• YouTube search — for specific videos or channels you want to find.

Add youtube.com/feed/subscriptions to your bookmarks bar. This becomes your YouTube entry point: curated by your own subscription choices, not by the recommendation algorithm.

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Mobile: what works and what doesn’t

Browser extensions don’t run in the native YouTube iOS or Android app. The app is a sandboxed environment where extensions have no access.

For mobile home feed removal:

Android: Install Kiwi Browser (free, supports Chrome extensions). Install Unhook inside Kiwi. Access YouTube through Kiwi rather than the native app — Unhook applies to YouTube in Kiwi.

iOS: Install Orion Browser (free, supports Chrome and Firefox extensions). Install Unhook. Use YouTube through Orion.

Alternative for Android: NewPipe — an open-source YouTube client with no home feed, no ads, and no recommendations at all. Only shows your subscribed channels’ content. Highly recommended for Android users who want maximum feed control without juggling browsers.

Alternative for iOS: Freedom — block the YouTube app during focus hours, use it only during deliberate YouTube sessions.