The Villow extension
Bring your limits to YouTube itself.
The Villow extension works on YouTube in Chrome, Edge and Firefox, and on Firefox for Android. Use it on its own, or link it to Villow to bring everything together.
- Free and open source
- View the source code
TBDImage to comeThe extension on YouTube16/10
On its own
- See your time on YouTube today, and your daily average.
- Daily caps you choose: time on YouTube, recommendations you see, and videos you watch.
- Calmer YouTube: greyscale thumbnails or videos, hide Shorts, hide the recommendations beside the video you're watching, and hide comments.
- Bedtime: YouTube closes for the night when you've said it should.
- Or block YouTube entirely.
TBDImage to comeExtension settings4/3
Recommended
Better with Villow
- Click a video on YouTube, and it's saved to your Villow feed instead of playing. Browsing stays browsing; one video doesn't snowball into ten. Your daily cap becomes a cap on saves.
- Your time counts. Time on YouTube adds to your Villow daily limit, and shows up on your Villow time page and in your suggestions.
- Hide channels you already subscribe to, since they're waiting in your Villow feed.
- One set of limits. Edit them in the extension or inside Villow, and see your progress as small rings on your Villow home page.
TBDImage to comeProgress rings on the Villow home page4/3
Why an extension?
Villow can't show YouTube's own recommendations inside the app, so the extension goes where they are. You keep the freedom to browse YouTube, with a ceiling you set.
Everything it does
| Feature | On its own | Linked to Villow |
|---|---|---|
| See your time on YouTube today and your daily average | Yes | Yes (also shown in Villow) |
| Daily time cap on YouTube | Yes | Yes (and YouTube time counts toward your Villow limit) |
| Daily cap on recommendations seen | Yes | Yes |
| Daily cap on videos watched on YouTube | Yes | No (videos are saved to Villow instead) |
| Click a video and it's saved to your Villow feed instead of playing, with a daily save cap | No | Yes |
| Greyscale thumbnails and greyscale videos | Yes | Yes |
| Hide Shorts | Yes | Yes |
| Hide recommendations beside the video you're watching | Yes | Yes |
| Hide comments | Yes | Yes |
| Bedtime that closes YouTube for the night | Yes | Yes |
| Block YouTube entirely | Yes | Yes |
| Hide channels you're already subscribed to (they're in your Villow feed) | No | Yes |
| Edit limits in Villow, and see progress rings on your Villow home page | No | Yes |
| Chrome, Edge and Firefox on computers; Firefox for Android, plus some other Android browsers with extension support | Yes | Yes |
| Safari, iPhone and iPad Coming soon | No | No |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
Where it works
| Device | Support |
|---|---|
| Windows, macOS, Linux | Chrome, Edge, Firefox |
| Android | Firefox (recommended), plus some other Android browsers that support extensions |
| iPhone, iPad, Safari | Coming soon |
What it can see
- It only works on YouTube pages, in the browser where you install it.
- Linked to Villow, it sends videos you click and your daily totals (like time on YouTube and recommendations seen) to your own Villow, not to Fix the Web or anyone else.
- It doesn't send your browsing history.
- It never changes anything in your YouTube account.
- It's open source, so anyone can check exactly what it does.
TBDNicholas to confirm each point
Linking it to Villow
Inside Villow, create a connect link and open it in the browser where the extension is installed. You can make a separate link for each browser, and turn any one of them off on its own.