Cool Snail
Cool Snail is a free Android app with four tools to control social media addiction: it blocks short videos, limits your time, puts an end to infinite scrolling and shows you how long you've been at it. Your DMs, search and the videos friends send you still work.
Get Cool Snail free Android 8.0+ · Free forever, no trial · PRO to lock your rules
Each one has its own switch on the home screen and works on its own.
Open Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, TikTok or the X video tab and you're back out in about a second. Reels and Shorts links opened in Chrome too.
Videos friends send you in a chat still play. In the Instagram feed, a check-in after 3 Reels.
One daily limit for all your social apps, a limit for each app, and open hours, say 08:00 to 23:00. When the time is up, the app closes.
Over your limit, one ad buys 5 more minutes. Open hours can't be bought.
Reddit and X get an end. Every 20 posts the feed pauses for 3 seconds, with a card that asks if another page is worth it.
You can always leave. The next page opens once the pause is over.
A small bubble floats over the feed with your minutes in that app today, your total across all apps and the posts you've seen.
For awareness, not punishment: it blocks nothing, it just keeps the number in view.
Cool Snail is a free Android app to control social media addiction. It has four tools you switch on one by one: it blocks short videos (Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, TikTok and the X video tab), limits your time, breaks up infinite scrolling on Reddit and X, and keeps a bubble with your time and posts over the feed. Everything else in those apps keeps working.
Most blockers lock the whole app, so you turn them off the first time you need to answer a message. Cool Snail only goes after the feed built to keep you there.
Swipe into full-screen Reels and the snail walks you back out. Your feed, stories, DMs and posting stay yours.
Long videos, subscriptions and search work like always. The vertical swipe doesn't.
A second of grace so you see you slipped, then out. It feels like your decision, not a crash.
A blocker you can't live with gets uninstalled. These three make it something you keep.
Open a Reel, Short or TikTok from a chat on WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger, Signal or Instagram's own DMs and it plays. The snail peeks in with a small note, Sent by a friend. Go ahead.
, and leaves you to it.
Only videos opened straight from a chat get the pass. On Instagram, swiping to a reel from someone else ends it; anywhere, leaving the video or switching apps ends it.
Pick a start and an end, say 08:00 to 23:00. Outside that window Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and the rest close, and a card tells you when they open again.
The same hours every day. A window past midnight carries into the next morning.
Give each app its own minutes, plus one daily total. When you run out, the app closes. If you really want more, one ad buys 5 minutes, counted from that moment.
Friction on purpose: going over becomes a choice, not a reflex. Every ad shows up in your statistics. Open hours can't be bought, and PRO removes the ad option.
Three steps, about a minute.
Step by step on the blog: how to block YouTube Shorts on Android and how to block Reels without deleting Instagram.
What Cool Snail does in each app.
| App | Pulls you out of | Time limits | Posts counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full-screen Reels, plus a check-in after 3 Reels in the feed | Yes | Yes | |
| YouTube | Shorts | Yes | Yes |
| TikTok | The video feed | Yes | No |
| X (Twitter) | The video tab | Yes | Yes; every 20 posts the feed pauses for 3 seconds |
| — | Yes | Yes; every 20 posts the feed pauses for 3 seconds | |
| — | Yes | No | |
| — | Yes | No | |
| Chrome | TikTok, Reels, Shorts and Facebook Reels links | — | — |
The blocking isn't a trial. PRO is for people who know their thumb will try to cheat.
No account, no card, no countdown.
Local prices in Google Play. In Spain, €3.49 a month or €34.99 a year. Cancel anytime.
Cool Snail gives you four tools against social media addiction, each with its own switch. Exit shorts pulls you out of Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, TikTok and the X video tab. Time blocking sets a daily limit, a limit per app and open hours. One page at a time breaks up infinite scrolling on Reddit and X with a 3-second pause every 20 posts. The bubble floats over the feed with your time today and the posts you've seen.
Install Cool Snail and turn on its Accessibility access. When you open full-screen Reels, Cool Snail takes you back out after about a second. Your feed, stories, DMs, search and posting keep working, so you don't have to delete Instagram.
Cool Snail detects the YouTube Shorts player and takes you out of it. Long videos, subscriptions and search work as normal.
Yes. Cool Snail is free on Android with no trial and no time limit. Open TikTok's video feed and it takes you out after a second of grace. You can also give TikTok its own daily limit.
Yes. If you open a Reel, Short or TikTok from a chat on WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger, Signal or Instagram's own DMs, it plays and a small note says: Sent by a friend. Go ahead. On Instagram, swiping to a reel from someone else ends the pass; anywhere, leaving the video or switching apps ends it. Only videos opened straight from a chat get the pass.
Yes, in Chrome: short videos opened in Chrome, such as TikTok links, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and Facebook Reels, take you out too.
Android only lets an app see that you have opened a Reel, a Short or a TikTok through its Accessibility service. Cool Snail uses it only inside the social apps it supports, to count your time and take you out of short videos. What it sees there is processed on your phone and never sent anywhere.
On the free version, yes, but it costs you something: when you reach your daily limit or an app's own limit, you can watch one ad to get 5 more minutes, starting from that moment. It is friction on purpose, so going over is a choice and not a reflex. Open hours can't be extended, and PRO removes the ad option entirely.
Yes. Set open hours with a start and an end time, for example 08:00 to 23:00. They are the same every day. Outside that window your social apps close. A window that goes past midnight carries on into the next morning.
Yes. Blocking short videos, daily and per-app limits, open hours, the bubble and today's statistics are free forever, with no account and no card. When you go over your limit, you can watch one ad for 5 more minutes.
PRO is for fixing your rules: your limits, open hours and switches are fixed for 30 days and can't be loosened until the 30 days are over. You confirm it in the app before it starts, so it never begins by surprise. PRO also removes the ad extension and unlocks your full statistics: the last 7 and 30 days, this week against the last one, and the hour you lose most. It is a monthly or yearly subscription at local Google Play prices; in Spain, 3.49 euros a month or 34.99 euros a year.
An app timer pauses the whole app, so you lose your messages too. Cool Snail only goes after the short-video feed and leaves messages, search and stories alone. It can also limit whole apps when you want that.
Some, and the privacy policy lists all of it. What you do inside your social apps, your time, the posts you see and your statistics stay on your phone and are deleted when you uninstall the app. What does leave the phone: your purchase history and an anonymous ID, through Google Play and RevenueCat. On the free plan, only if you choose to watch the optional ad, Google AdMob receives your advertising ID, your IP address and how you interact with the ad, with your consent where the law requires it. OneSignal receives a device token to deliver notifications, and your email only if you join the gifting waitlist.
Cool Snail recognises Reels, Shorts and TikTok by how those apps are built, so a big redesign can stop it from spotting a feed until Cool Snail is updated. When that happens it gets fixed in an app update; TikTok's September 2026 redesign was fixed within days.
Not yet. Cool Snail is Android only, for Android 8.0 and later.
Some phones switch accessibility services off to save battery. Set Cool Snail's battery use to Unrestricted (No restrictions on Xiaomi), allow Autostart if your phone has it, then turn Cool Snail back on in Accessibility settings.