No one likes to be brutally interrupted while they are watching and relaxing.

But, sometimes enough is enough and we need to be stopped from wasting our precious time. Latest update to Watch Limits makes this experience a bit easier.

New limit cutoff experience

The basic idea is that the extension will first start with a warning, instead of redirecting as soon as you run out of the limit.

You can dismiss the warning and keep watching up to a minute while your screen gently dims… or you can stop watching here and there.

Alternatively, if you are pretty quick, you can use the extension’s pop up to adjust your limits so you will be able to finish the current video.

I recorded a demo to show you how it works in practice:


Curious? try it out!

And yeah, the project has its own youtube channel now 🎉!

Minor improvements

There have been multiple small quality of life improvements like a popup showing the limit time next to the time watched or an easy to access feedback form.

You will also notice that the structure of the internal page has changed. I subdivided it into subpages, to prepare the app for the development of some new and powerful features like detailed watching stats and analytics. Stay tuned for that!

There also have been some work that is less visible, but still important, for example all parts of the extension:

  • internal extension page
  • pop up
  • content script app (embedded a set of a couple explicitly listed ones, it doesn’t run everywhere)

are now React Apps. This can help me to develop quicker, because I can leverage powerful set of libraries from the React ecosystem.

What’s next?

Well, there is still a lot to do based on my previous what’s next update!

I am barely scratching the surface! Next feature in the queue is better analytics and watching statistics.

How can you help?

If you get convinced by watch limits mission: a privacy first extension that lets you watch responsibly, try it out!

And then tell me what you think, e.g. reaching out over twitter DMs or the contact form!

I want this tool to be useful to people so I need to know what people struggle with and what would they like from a tool like this.

I’m also looking for testimonials, my goal is to gather at least 5 this quarter and I would really appreciate your help with it ❤️.