A filter list for uBO that blurs all video and non-follower content from Instagram. Works on mobile with uBO Lite.
related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47016443
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Great! The more solutions to filter unwanted content on the internet the better.
Sometimes we find ourselves stuck having to use a particular platform because that's where the group chat is.
I've had great success with Firefox and the Social Focus extension. Works on a number of different sites including YouTube, Reddit and Instagram.
I would love have something like this on a phone but only solution which I thought of other than stop using the app is decompile whole app, remove the reels and recompile it again which is not very viable solution.
By throawayonthe 2026-03-0310:212 reply not that i love this solution but that's exactly what the revanecd project does
here are their available patches for instagram: https://revanced.app/patches?pkg=com.instagram.android
By CarlJW 2026-03-0311:47 This works on Firefox Mobile. I use it on Android and my Desktop without any issue.
I'll add also, for the odd thing that this doesn't filter, then I use uBlock Origin to filter that particular element.
By TheCapeGreek 2026-03-0311:301 reply I use ScreenZen for mobile - it can block specifically short form content so you can stick to the actual social parts.
By CarlJW 2026-03-0311:52 I use timelimit.io for managing screen time. Nice granular controls and schedule based rules.
I apply the 80/20 rule. 8 minutes allowed, followed by 2 minutes blocked. Then at night I reverse it. 2 minutes allowed, 8 minutes blocked. Just enough time to make one search query and then get off my phone. Or if I do get trapped by something, it's only for a short time.
By TheCapeGreek 2026-03-0311:331 reply Haven't checked on it since about mid last year but Facebook settings didn't work with it for me.
LinkedIn has also been especially hard to find a good blocker for to remove the sponsored/suggested posts from the timeline (it's just full of garbage engagement bait hot takes).
I just vibecoded a tampermonkey script to block scrolling on Instagram and also block reels. I also had it redirect from the `/reels/` URL to `/reel` which is just the single video view (for when friends link me memes), but it seems they removed that.
By CarlJW 2026-03-0311:58 IGPlus worked much better for me on Instagram. https://weblxapplications.com/en/products/igplus
For facebook I love Facebook Purity. Only problem is it's desktop only. https://www.fbpurity.com/
Edit, some things I've been able to us ublock origin for. Like facebook reels. Not 100% clean but enough to stop them from working (no video, just still thumbnail when you open them). In some ways that provides some reinforcement learning to the brain.
By Natfan 2026-03-0313:12 if you're just using meta platforms for the chat functionality, may i recommend beeper.com?
> I'm trying to make Instagram be what my parents said Facebook was.
Hell, you're trying to make Instagram be what Instagram used to be. Back in the early (pre-Meta) days, it was just a reverse-chronological feed of the posts from people you followed.
A decent part of why I bailed on Instagram back in 2019 or so was because it had stopped being this for a while (posts reordered, some not even shown, so many ads).
You can still get a chronological feed if you tap the Instagram logo at the top and click "Following"
But you can't turn that mode on as a default, and it essentially kicks you from the normal app hierarchy into a separate barebones screen. I find it's all for naught anyway because my friends have long since stopped making regular posts on Instagram, it's more common to use stories.
By CincinnatiMan 2026-03-0222:471 reply Do Stories show up differently than posts? Asking as someone that has not used Instagram beyond looking at a few specific profiles.
By hbn 2026-03-0314:44 Stories are the purpley-yellow rings at the top of the main page with people's profile pictures. Or if you go to their profile you'll see the ring around their profile picture. Stuff you post there stays viewable for 24 hours.
Posts are the stuff that appears in the main feed and your profile permanently (unless you remove it manually)
You can also get into the difference between posts are reels but... they've kinda fuzzied that over the years.
By zadikian 2026-03-031:18 Didn't know about this and wow, I had missed stuff from real friends because the regular feed hid it.
Right, you used to be able to do that with Facebook, too (haven't been on there in forever, don't know the current state), but, right, it would reset to the usual slop after a little while.
This sort of garbage is just yet another reason why I don't want to be on these platforms. "Oh, you prefer it this way? No, fuck you, we know better as to what you want."
> my friends have long since stopped making regular posts on Instagram, it's more common to use stories.
Ugh. I don't know what my friends have been doing these days on Instagram, but the last thing I want to spend my day doing is watching short-form video clips posted by my friends. The photo stream (yes, with occasional short videos), was wonderful.
By eSandwich8 2026-03-0310:46 Facebook still supports a chronological feed as well: https://www.facebook.com/help/218728138156311?locale=en_US
Heading to the home page, opening the menu, and tapping "See More" reveals a "Feeds" option. Tapping the "Feeds" option then reveals the chronological feed.
By coldtrait 2026-03-033:02 In my case, Instagram eventually got to a point where most of my friends and family stopped posting. And I started following more creators because their content was interesting. These days there are some a few people I follow who are friends and I mostly just send them dumb reels. I see it more as a platform to consume content than keeping up with updates.
That said, I go through cycles of removing the app and reinstalling it later because it gets addictive.
By hmokiguess 2026-03-0220:312 reply I don't use the app so I confess I'm a little confused, I saw your screenshot and it seems like the end result is just scrolling through nothing. Why would you want that? Isn't it better to just not open it altogether? Like, block the entire thing? Why scroll through a bunch of blur
The screenshot was to demonstrate what blocked posts look like. I scrolled past the posts of my friends since I didn't want to dox them, but organic posts do show up near the top of my feed.
The goal isn't to scroll through nothing, but rather have a clean feed that shows me just my friends and nothing else.
By diath 2026-03-0223:15 When you press "For you" at the top in the Instagram app (or the logo if it doesn't fully load), you can switch to "Following" and it will show you posts from only your friends from the past 30 days, and if you're using Instagram in the browser, you can bookmark https://www.instagram.com/?variant=following if you want it to be the default page you go to.
By yard2010 2026-03-0221:24 It says in the post OP didn't want to fix the layout (and it is implied that empty space is less friendly than blurred content)
By Forgeties79 2026-03-0220:36 Same reason people use app timers when they can elect to not use the app instead.
