Turn YouTube into a calm reading list: no thumbnails, no autoplay, no clutter. 19 themes, layouts, GIF wallpapers, custom fonts.
Users
9
+7 in 30 days
Rating
5.0 / 5
unchanged in 30 days
Ratings
2
+1 in 30 days
Store rank
#208K
#174K among extensions
Version
2.0.0
updated 12 Oct 2026
Users
monthly, 2 months
Latest, 21 Oct 2026:9 usersMove the mouse over the chart for any month
Ratings count
monthly, 2 months
Latest, 21 Oct 2026:2 ratingsMove the mouse over the chart for any month
The Chrome Web Store rounds user counts down to the leading digit, so the user line moves in steps. The ratings count is exact and is the better signal of real adoption.
About Dumbify - Customizable text-based YouTube, no thumbnails or distractions
πΊ Dumbify turns YouTube into a plain, readable list of text. No thumbnails, no autoplay,
no recommendation rabbit holes β just titles, channels, and durations you can actually scan.
It is not a separate site. Dumbify sits on top of youtube.com, so you stay signed in and
your subscriptions, history, watch later, and comments all keep working exactly as before.
You just stop getting yelled at by the interface. π
π€ WHY
YouTube's interface is built to maximize watch time, not to help you find or finish a
video. Thumbnails are engineered to grab attention. Autoplay picks what you watch next.
The sidebar exists to pull you sideways into something else.
Dumbify strips that back to what a feed actually is: a list you scan and choose from.
β¨ WHAT YOU GET
π Text-first feed β titles, channel, views, and upload date across home, search, channel
pages, history, subscriptions, and watch later. No thumbnails anywhere.
π¬ Distraction-free watch page β the video, its description, and comments. No autoplay,
no end-screen suggestions, no "up next" sidebar.
π― Focus mode β press F for a full-screen player with no interface at all.
π¬ Real interactions, not a read-only mirror β subscribe and unsubscribe, like comments,
reply, and read replies.
π€ Typography controls β 8 font sizes, 8 font families across serif, sans, and mono,
light and dark themes, and a custom background.
β¨οΈ Keyboard-driven β Cmd/Ctrl+K to search, F for focus mode.
βΎοΈ Infinite scroll β loads more of the real feed as you go.
βοΈ HOW IT WORKS
Dumbify does not scrape the rendered page and does not route anything through a server.
It reads the same underlying data YouTube itself renders from, and calls the same API
YouTube's own frontend uses for pagination, subscribing, and posting comments.
Everything you do goes straight to YouTube with your existing session. There is no
middleman account and no separate write path.
π PRIVACY
Dumbify collects nothing. There is no server, no analytics, no telemetry, no crash
reporting, and no tracking of any kind.
Your display preferences are saved locally in your own browser and are never transmitted
anywhere. Requests go only to youtube.com.
Permissions, and why each is needed:
β’ storage β saves your font and theme preferences on your device
β’ scripting β reads YouTube's own page data in order to render the simplified view
β’ access to youtube.com β Dumbify runs only on YouTube and cannot see any other site
π Full privacy policy: https://edenreb.github.io/dumbify/PRIVACY
π» OPEN SOURCE
Dumbify is free and open source under GPL-3.0, with no runtime dependencies and no
remote code. Read every line, or build it yourself:
https://github.com/edenreb/dumbify
Made with β€οΈ by Eden Rebello and Gabriel Tan
Growth
Window
Users
Change
Ratings
Rating
7 days
β1
β10.0%
0
0.00
30 days
+7
+350.0%
+1
0.00
Chrome Web Store search rankings
Where Dumbify - Customizable text-based YouTube, no thumbnails or distractions appears when people search the store, with the 30 day change