How to Disable Helperbird on Specific Websites Using JSON Policy

This guide shows you how to disable Helperbird on specific websites for users in your organization using Chrome managed policy. This is useful if you want Helperbird to automatically turn off on certain websites, such as testing platforms or internal tools.

What This Does

When you add websites to the exclusion list, Helperbird will not run on those sites. Users will see a blue badge on the Helperbird icon and a message in the popup letting them know Helperbird is disabled on that page.

Users can still add their own excluded websites, but they cannot remove websites that you have added through the admin policy.

Before You Start

Make sure that:

• Helperbird is already added to your Organizational Unit (OU)
• You have administrator access to admin.google.com
• You have already enabled admin control using isAdminControl

If you haven't done this yet, follow our guide: How to Set Helperbird JSON Policy in Google Admin

JSON Policy Keys

There are two policy keys for website exclusion:

excludedDomains

Turns the website exclusion feature on or off.

• Set to true to enable website exclusion
• Set to false to disable it (this also clears the managed domain list)

excludedDomainsList

A list of website domains where Helperbird will be disabled. Each entry should be a domain name without https:// or www..

• Maximum of 10 domains
• Domains are case-insensitive
• Subdomains are automatically included (adding example.com also covers sub.example.com)

Starter Template

Use this template to get started. It enables admin control and website exclusion with an empty domain list.

{
  "subKey": {
    "Value": "YOUR SUBSCRIPTION KEY"
  },
  "isAdminControl": {
    "Value": true
  },
  "excludedDomains": {
    "Value": true
  },
  "excludedDomainsList": {
    "Value": []
  }
}

Example: Disable Helperbird on Testing Websites

To disable Helperbird on common testing platforms:

{
  "subKey": {
    "Value": "YOUR SUBSCRIPTION KEY"
  },
  "isAdminControl": {
    "Value": true
  },
  "excludedDomains": {
    "Value": true
  },
  "excludedDomainsList": {
    "Value": [
      "typingclub.com",
      "kahoot.it",
      "quizlet.com"
    ]
  }
}

Example: Combine with Feature Disabling

You can use website exclusion alongside feature disabling in the same policy:

{
  "subKey": {
    "Value": "YOUR SUBSCRIPTION KEY"
  },
  "isAdminControl": {
    "Value": true
  },
  "excludedDomains": {
    "Value": true
  },
  "excludedDomainsList": {
    "Value": [
      "typingclub.com",
      "kahoot.it"
    ]
  },
  "disableFeatures": {
    "Value": true
  },
  "disabledFeatures": {
    "Value": [
      "EditorReader"
    ]
  }
}

How It Works

When a user visits a website on the exclusion list:

• Helperbird will not run any features on that page
• The toolbar icon shows a blue || badge
• The popup shows a message saying Helperbird is disabled on this website
• The on/off toggle is greyed out and cannot be changed
• Clicking the banner opens the Settings page where users can see all excluded websites

Admin-managed domains appear as locked entries in the Settings page. Users can see them but cannot remove them.

Turning Off Website Exclusion

To turn off website exclusion, set excludedDomains to false. This will also clear the managed domain list from user devices.

{
  "excludedDomains": {
    "Value": false
  }
}

Users' own excluded domains are not affected. If you re-enable the feature later, their personal list will still be there.

Important Notes

• Domain names only - do not include https://, http://, or www.
• Subdomains are included - adding example.com also disables Helperbird on mail.example.com, app.example.com, etc.
• Maximum 10 domains - the list is capped at 10 entries
• Case-insensitive - Example.com and example.com are treated the same
• Users can add their own - users can still add personal exclusions, but cannot remove admin-managed ones

Verifying and Troubleshooting

If changes don't appear immediately:

• Restart Chrome, or
• Visit chrome://policy and click Reload policies

Double-check:

• The correct OU is selected
• JSON formatting is valid
• excludedDomains is set to true
• isAdminControl is set to true
• Domain names do not include https:// or www.

Video Tutorial

Coming soon.

Validate Your Policy

Before deploying, use our JSON Policy Validator to check for errors, validate feature codes, and see exactly what each setting does.

Need Additional Help?

If you need help setting up website exclusions or validating your policy, reach out to our Helperbird support team and we'll help you out!