5 platforms. One browser. Strips out Reels, Shorts, algorithmic feeds, and ads — then adds time limits, friction gates, and usage tracking so you stay in control. Everything runs on your phone, nothing phones home.
Same apps. Same accounts. Minus the parts designed to keep you stuck.
Want the full per-platform list? See exactly what Dull removes and keeps.
Not one big restriction. A bunch of small, adjustable ones. Use what works. Ignore the rest.
unedited. trimmed only with "…" where noted.
This is a game-changer!! I was wasting hours of my life every day due to shorts harmfully injected in my previously innocuous app. The thing is, they are easy to quit unlike real drugs, no withdrawal symptoms. Just my time back thanks to this app.
This app is really good. other screen time limits apps didn't work, because I would remove them all the time. but this app lets me keep using instagram, while not doomscrolling
Dude, just downloaded the app, it is brilliant. Been looking for a way to block reels for too long but I'm not techy at all. The greyscale is a really nice touch that I didn't expect to work as well as it does. Thanks for this
The real objections people have when their finger is hovering over the download button. Answered straight.
Filters are manifest-driven — a single config file per platform maps to the CSS and JS that does the hiding. When Instagram ships a redesign, the fix is usually hours, not weeks. This is literally what I do all day. Dull is actively maintained because if it stops working, people stop paying.
Your session stays on your device. Dull doesn't have a server to send credentials to — there isn't one. Each platform runs inside its own isolated WKWebsiteDataStore, so Instagram can't see that you also use X, and vice versa. No account, no profile, nothing about what you browse leaves the app. Anonymous product analytics and ad-attribution events exist (so we can fix bugs and know which ads work) — full breakdown on the privacy page. If you want the architecture in detail, read the technical explainer. Delete the app and everything goes with it.
DMs work. It's the real Instagram web, just with Reels cut out. Push notifications come through the normal Instagram/YouTube/etc. native apps if you have them installed — Dull doesn't need its own notification system and isn't trying to replace your phone's notification layer.
There's a session bypass. Hit the ··· menu in the browser, tap bypass, filters are off for this session. A banner tells you it's on so you can't forget. Close the app and next time you open it, filters are back. It's designed to not punish you for edge cases — the default is strict, the override is one tap.
No. Dull is a browser — nothing more. No VPN, no system-wide hooks, no background daemons, no accessibility permissions. You open it, it runs. You close it, it doesn't. Battery footprint is roughly the same as mobile Safari.
Nothing to lose. There's no account, no cloud data, no sync — everything lives on your phone. Delete the app and it's like it was never there. If you want your usage stats before you go, you can export them from Settings.
The free ones are free because they sell your data, run ads, or stop being maintained the minute Instagram changes a CSS class. Dull is none of those. $4 a month pays for one person to keep it working when Instagram redesigns. That's the whole business model.
made by a guy who kept opening instagram for no reason.
I tried every blocker. The wellness ones nagged. The gamified ones turned recovery into another streak to maintain. The hard blockers locked me out of things I actually needed — DMs, messages from family, the one useful account I follow. None of them solved the real problem, which was that I wanted the good parts of social media and none of the parts that hijack you.
So I built a browser that removes the hijacking parts and leaves the rest. Reels gone. Shorts gone. Algorithmic feeds gone. DMs, search, posts, stories — all still there, because those are the parts I actually opened the app for in the first place.
Turned out I wasn't the only one with that problem. Dull is a solo project, maintained by me, funded by people who pay $4 a month for it. No investors, no growth team, no roadmap written by someone who's never opened Instagram out of boredom.
— kaspar, solo indie dev · [email protected]
Try it free for 7 days. If you don't notice a difference, cancel before it charges. You probably will though.
No account to create. Nothing leaves your phone. Works in about 4 seconds.