Stop the endless scroll.

Download: latest APK · Module page: modules.lsposed.org · Package: io.github.sfsakhawat999.reelsblock

ReelsBlock is an Xposed module for rooted Android devices that stops endless vertical scrolling in short videos: YouTube Shorts, YouTube Music Samples, Instagram Reels and Facebook Reels. The video you open plays normally, so a specific Short or Reel opened from search, your feed or a profile still works. Taps, likes, comments and playback keep working — but swiping to the next video does nothing until you leave the player.

YouTube search, the home feed, long videos, comments, likes — all untouched. ReelsBlock only affects the short-video player.

• YouTube Shorts — Shorts play normally; swiping up for the next Short does nothing until you leave the player.
• YouTube Music Samples — the same for the Samples tab.
• Instagram Reels — the same for the Reels player.
• Facebook Reels — the same for the Reels tab and for reels/videos opened from the feed. Facebook renames its internal classes every build, so the module finds the player by its layout instead of a name; see docs/facebook-reels.md.
• Browser (Chromium) — Shorts/Reel URLs are blocked inside Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Kiwi, Ecosia, Cromite, …): the module hooks Chromium's tab URL callback and overwrites the page with a plain blocked page — YouTube Shorts included, no redirect. Details: docs/browser.md.
• Taps still work — like, comment, pause, and share keep functioning; only swiping to the next video is blocked.
• One gentle toast per visit — "That's your Short, Sample or Reel for now. Press back to leave."
• Headless by design — no launcher icon, no settings screen, no toggles. Blocking and the toast are always on. The module appears only in your Xposed manager.
• Fixed scope — declares com.google.android.youtube, com.google.android.apps.youtube.music, com.instagram.android, com.facebook.katana and the Chromium browser packages (Chrome stable/beta/dev/canary, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Kiwi, Ecosia, Chromium, Cromite, Bromite) as a static scope, so managers list them automatically ("Fixed by the module" in Vector). No manual scope selection.

• Rooted Android device with Magisk (or KernelSU) and an LSPosed-compatible framework that supports the modern libxposed API (API version ≥ 101). Tested with the Vector manager 2.2 (chsbuffer's LSPosed fork).
• Android 16 (tested on OPPO, build A059P), minSdk 27.
• Target apps (tested versions):
  • YouTube 21.42.243
  • YouTube Music 9.41.53 (Samples tab)
  • Instagram 453.0.0.57.79
  • Facebook 538.0.0.53.70, 585.0.0.47.54, 587.0.0.0.29 (Reels tab and feed-opened reels)

ReelsBlock is a modern libxposed module (no legacy de.robv classes are bundled):

A visit begins when the player's vertical pager is attached to a window and ends when it detaches. While a visit is active, only the tracked pager instance (and its internal RecyclerView) is refused; every other RecyclerView/ViewPager in the app keeps scrolling normally.

All anchors were verified live on-device. Obfuscated apps are anchored on stable androidx class names + resource ids, never on app-specific obfuscated names:

YouTube Shorts / YouTube Music Samples

• Pager: com.google.android.libraries.youtube.reel.internal.pager.ReelRecyclerView (id reel_recycler); YouTube Music's Samples tab uses the same class and structure as Shorts, so one hook covers both
• Gates: onInterceptTouchEvent, onTouchEvent (the primary gate); fling, scrollToPosition, smoothScrollToPosition where the build exposes them (YouTube Music 9.41.53 does not, but the touch gates still stop swipes)
• Barrier: androidx.swiperefreshlayout.widget.SwipeRefreshLayout (no pull cycle)

Instagram Reels

• Pager: stock androidx.viewpager2.widget.ViewPager2 with resource id clips_viewer_view_pager (IG renames its own classes every build — the id and androidx names are stable)
• Gates: onInterceptTouchEvent, onTouchEvent, setCurrentItem, plus the inner RecyclerView (identified by parent === tracked pager)
• Barrier: instagram.features.clips.viewer.ui.ClipsSwipeRefreshLayout

Facebook Reels (details: docs/facebook-reels.md)

• Pager: the outermost full-screen RecyclerView under a LithoView whose children are one tiny placeholder plus uniform-height full pages (the pager's page, not a feed list); this shape matched on 538.0.0.53.70, 585.0.0.47.54 and 587.0.0.0.29 (Facebook renames the AndroidX paging methods and shifts ids, so no name/id anchor is relied on)
• Gates: onLayout, onInterceptTouchEvent, onTouchEvent (swallow after touch slop, taps pass through), scrollBy, scrollTo, onDetachedFromWindow
• Session ends when the pager detaches; the toast resets when another list is touched

Blocked calls simply do not proceed() in the interceptor chain — the pager's own drag/paging pipeline never runs, while touch events still reach child views.

Requirements: JDK 17+, Android SDK 36, network access for the compile-only libxposed API artifact.

./gradlew assembleDebug
# APK: app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk

Important: the libxposed API dependency is compileOnly. The framework refuses modules that ship de.robv/Xposed API classes inside the APK. Do not change it to implementation.

1. Download the latest APK from Releases (or build it yourself — see Building) and install it on the rooted device.
2. Open your Xposed manager → Modules → enable ReelsBlock.
3. Scope is fixed by the module itself — YouTube, YouTube Music, Instagram, Facebook and the Chromium browsers are added automatically.
4. Force-stop YouTube, YouTube Music, Instagram, Facebook and the browser (or reboot) so the hook is injected into a fresh process.

Built in — no extra module. Chromium-based browsers are all in the fixed scope: Chrome (stable/beta/dev/canary), Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Kiwi, Ecosia, Chromium, Cromite and Bromite. Enable ReelsBlock for your browser in your Xposed manager (already listed) and force-stop it. In the browser, Shorts/Reel URLs — youtube.com/shorts/… (incl. /shorts/feed), instagram.com/reels…, instagram.com/reel/<id>, facebook.com/reel… — are navigated away into a plain "Shorts / Reels are blocked here" page with a Back button. No redirect for YouTube: a Short in the browser is treated exactly like a reel. Works for fresh visits and for SPA openers from a site's homepage.

The injection mechanism is adapted from ChromeXt (JingMatrix, GPL-3.0). Verified on Chrome, Chrome Canary, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Kiwi, Ecosia, Cromite, ChromiumBrowser and Bromite. Heavy forks (Opera, Samsung Internet, Yandex, Aloha) rename the engine classes the hook needs and are not supported. Full details and limitations: docs/browser.md.

• Watch live logs:

  adb logcat -s ReelsBlock

• Framework logs (Vector/LSPosed):

  su -c "ls /data/adb/lspd/log/"

• If a target app update breaks blocking, the module logs (version drift) for the anchor it could not resolve. Please open an issue with your app version and the log lines.
• Browser not blocked after a module update? Open the module's scope page in Vector and apply Use what the module asks for — a browser added in a newer version can show up unticked even though the list says "Fixed by the module".

• Anchors are pinned to the tested app versions above; future updates may rename classes or resource ids. The module degrades gracefully (logs the drift, keeps running).
• Facebook: verified on 538.0.0.53.70, 585.0.0.47.54 and 587.0.0.0.29 on phones; both the Reels tab and feed-opened reels are blocked. Support is device-dependent: on tablets, foldables, landscape or other layouts where Facebook does not use this kind of player, blocking may not apply. A future Facebook layout change may also need a re-probe.
• YouTube Music Samples: verified on 9.41.53. The Samples tab uses the same player component as YouTube Shorts; if YouTube Music switches to a different player, a re-probe is needed.
• Browser (Chromium): a hard URL block, not the in-app swipe block — a web page has no in-app player to block. Only reel URLs are caught; reels opened as SPA modals while the URL stays on the feed are not. Browser updates may break the Chromium anchors until the module is updated; forks that strip or rename the engine classes log (version drift) and simply leave URLs alone. See docs/browser.md.
• Only swiping inside the short-video player is blocked — by design. Scrolling everywhere else stays untouched.
• This is a personal, educational project. Using Xposed modules may violate the terms of service of the target apps; use at your own risk.

GNU General Public License v3.0 — see LICENSE.

Issues and pull requests are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md.