Sociano
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Guide

Every short-form feed, gone.

Keep DMs, posting, search and subscriptions — remove Reels, Shorts, For You and Popular in one place.

Updated July 2026

The short answer

You don't have to quit social media to escape short-form feeds. Sociano opens each platform in a controlled in-app view with its own rules: Reels on Instagram, Shorts on YouTube, For You on X, Popular on Reddit. The useful parts — DMs, posting, search, subscriptions — stay available on every platform.

What changes — and what stays

Removed

  • ✕Instagram Reels and Explore loops
  • ✕YouTube Shorts and Shorts shelves
  • ✕X's For You pull and trending rabbit holes
  • ✕Reddit's Popular-feed drift

Kept

  • ✓DMs and replies on every platform
  • ✓Posting and commenting
  • ✓Search, plus specific profiles and communities
  • ✓Subscriptions and the accounts you chose

How it works

  1. 1

    Download Sociano

    Get Sociano on the App Store. It's free to download on iPhone, and setup takes about a minute.

  2. 2

    Open each platform inside Sociano

    Sign in through each platform's official login. Every platform gets its own rules — Reels on Instagram, Shorts on YouTube, For You on X, Popular on Reddit — so you decide per app what goes and what stays.

  3. 3

    Add native-app blocking (optional)

    If muscle memory keeps opening the native apps directly, enable Sociano's native app blocking. It uses Apple's Screen Time framework, so the calm route becomes the default one.

Download on the App Store

Why target feeds, not platforms

The problem was never social media as a category — it's a specific surface: the bottomless, algorithm-ranked short-form feed. That's the part engineered to maximize time spent, and the part that makes “just checking something” impossible.

Start from what you actually need — messages, posting, search, a few specific accounts — and remove the routes that don't serve those tasks. Then use Sociano's daily limits and usage insights to check whether your time actually changed. The goal is fewer accidental hours, not a streak badge.

Good to know

Instagram and YouTube have the strongest support today. Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit and X are also included, with platform behavior improving over time.

Sociano works through controlled web sessions, so some native-only features are limited — and it never modifies other apps. Full honesty on the limitations page.

Frequently asked

Why not just delete every social app?▼
For some people that's the right call. But most people still need social media for something — messages, work, communities — and all-or-nothing collapses the first time they do. Sociano removes the feeds and keeps the tools; we compare the two honestly in Sociano vs. deleting social media.
Does this require willpower?▼
Much less than a timer does. Timers ask you to stop mid-scroll, and most people tap Ignore Limit. Sociano changes the default path so the distracting route isn't the easiest route.
Which platforms does Sociano support?▼
Instagram and YouTube have the strongest support today. Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit and X are included as well, improving over time.
Can I set different rules per platform?▼
Yes. Each platform has its own controls, so YouTube can stay looser for work while Instagram gets the strict treatment.

More guides

All guides →

Instagram without Reels

Keep DMs, search and posting — remove Reels, Explore and suggested posts.

YouTube without Shorts

Search, subscriptions and full videos stay. The vertical feed goes.

How to stop doomscrolling

It's a design problem, not a willpower problem. Here's the design fix.

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