Porch Moth: a pause before Shorts and Reels by Porch Moth

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
• Nothing to set up: it’s on as soon as it’s installed, with your pause page at porchmoth.com.
• 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” ends the pause there, and you close the tab. “Open it anyway”, a reason if you want to give one, 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, once you switch it off: clear the address under Settings on its page.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN
• No account, no analytics, no network requests of its own.
• No record of what you watch. On your computer it keeps your pause page’s address, your cooldown and when a “Let me in” ends, and, while a tab is open, when that tab was last let through to the video and how many times in a row, never where.
• 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 has steps for phones too, without an extension: the setup guide at porchmoth.com shows how to put the same pause in front of TikTok, Reels and Shorts. That part is early and hasn’t been tried on a real phone yet. 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.