All Apple gadgets come with Safari as their default browser. Today, it is launching a new feature called “Distraction Control.” With the use of this feature, users can get rid of unwanted features from websites, such as mailing advertising, cookie preferences, and sign-in pop-ups.
How Distraction Control Works
Distraction Control allows you to hide static content on a webpage. However, it doesn’t permanently hide ads. If you hide an ad, it will reappear when you refresh the page. This feature also cannot block other dynamic elements that pop up randomly.
To use Distraction Control:
- Open Safari on your Apple device.
- Go to the Page Menu.
- In the Smart Search field, find the option named “Hide Distracting Items.”
- Click on this option to open a select tool that lets you choose the area you want to hide.
An option labeled “Show hidden items” allows you to restore mistakenly hidden content.
Limitations
Distraction Control is very useful for blocking annoying content, especially when reading articles or shopping online. However, it has a limitation: the elements you hide on one device won’t sync across other Apple devices. You will have to manually hide them on each device you use.
Availability
Currently, Distraction Control is available only to those running the fifth beta of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. It will be available to everyone with the public release of these operating systems.
Other New Features in Safari
Apart from Distraction Control, Safari is getting other improvements:
- Highlights Feature: This lets you quickly view important information on a website.
- Redesigned Reader Mode: This new mode shows summaries with a table of contents, making navigating and reading articles easier.
New AI-Powered Features
Apple is also releasing several new AI-powered capabilities in iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 that are intended to enhance the user experience overall.
To sum up, you can hide unwanted webpage elements with Safari’s new Distraction Control function, but it is not an ad-blocker and needs to be manually adjusted on each device. Along with this, Safari is getting more updates to improve browsing and reading experiences with new features like Highlights and an improved Reader mode. These updates are currently in beta and will be available to everyone soon.
