Feed Free - Unbiased Feed (FF - UF) by ani

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 Unbiased Feed (Upcoming) — Introduce a custom-curated, non-manipulative feed engine. Safely inject neutral, educational, or random content to provide a healthy alternative timeline.
• Phase 3: The Focus Lock (Future) — Add intentional behavioral friction and lock-in options, preventing you from overriding your detox settings when you need to focus most.

🌟 KEY FEATURES (CURRENTLY ACTIVE — PHASE 1)

📺 YOUTUBE FOCUS MODE
• Hide Home Feed: Removes the homepage recommendation grid to reduce passive scrolling.
• Hide Shorts: Removes Shorts from the homepage, sidebar, and channel pages.
• Hide Search Shorts: Removes Shorts shelves and video results from search, with a brief notification when results are hidden.
• Hide Recommendations: Clears suggested videos beside the player and on playlist pages.
• Clean Player: Replaces Hide Entire Sidebar with a centered, responsive player, rounded corners, and comfortable margins. Keeps native theater, fullscreen, and miniplayer layouts.
• Keep Playlist Below Player: Keep your active playlist beneath the video in Clean Player, or hide it for a focused viewing layout.
• Blur Thumbnails: Blur thumbnails and previews while keeping titles, avatars, and playback clear. Adjust and save blur strength from 1–24 px.
• Hide Comments & End Screens: Separate controls to remove comment sections and end-of-video recommendation overlays.
• Sidebar & Notification Controls: Individually hide Subscriptions, Explore/Trending, Report History, Notifications, and “More from YouTube.”
• Audio Only Mode ('A'): Black out the video while keeping audio playing. Includes a draggable player toggle, optional visualizer and controls, and keyboard shortcut.
• Grayscale Mode ('G'): Turn YouTube black and white using the popup or keyboard shortcut, with notification feedback.

📸 INSTAGRAM FOCUS MODE
• Following Feed: Redirect the homepage to your chronological Following feed.
• Redirect Home to DMs: Open your message inbox instead of the home feed.
• Hide DMs: Hide message navigation, the floating Messages button, and unread badges, and redirect away from the inbox.
• Redirect Destination: When Redirect Home to DMs and Hide DMs are both enabled, choose Profile or Saved from the inline dropdown.
• Hide Reels & Explore: Hide their navigation entries and redirect away from the main Reels and Explore pages while keeping profile Reels accessible.
• Hide Stories (Home & Everywhere): Hide only the home feed’s stories tray, or also hide highlights and story rings and redirect away from story pages.
• Hide Comments & Likes Count: Hide comment sections, comment counts, and post like counts while preserving captions and interactive Like, Comment, Share, and Save buttons.
• Hide Notes: Remove status note bubbles from profiles and inbox lists.
• Hide Notifications: Remove notification navigation, floating notification summaries, and unread badges.
• Hide Professional Dashboard: Remove creator and business dashboard links from the sidebar.
• Square Profile Photos: Display profile pictures and story indicators with square styling.
• Grayscale Mode ('G'): Turn Instagram black and white from the popup or keyboard shortcut.

⚙ GLOBAL DETOX CONTROLS
• Master Switch: Enable or pause feed blocking with a clear ON/OFF control.
• Independent Appearance Controls: Audio Only Mode and Grayscale Mode work independently of the master switch.
• Redesigned Popup: A cleaner layout with aligned switches, readable labels, indented child options, and light/dark themes.
• Platform Selection: Automatically detect the current site or manually select YouTube or Instagram.
• Platform-Specific Reset: Reset YouTube or Instagram settings separately.
• Scroll Guidance: Edge fades and a double-chevron indicator help you find additional settings.
• Keyboard-Friendly Controls: Navigate the platform picker with keyboard focus support and dismiss it with Escape.
• Real-Time Synchronization: Settings changes apply across open supported tabs.
• Dynamic Navigation Support: Filtering continues as you navigate within YouTube and Instagram without requiring page reloads.

🔒 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.