New Distraction Control Safari Feature Launches in Latest iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia Betas

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With the fifth betas of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, Apple is introducing a previously unannounced feature for Safari, Distraction Control.

safari icon blue banner
As the name suggests, Distraction Control is designed to cut down on distracting elements from articles and webpages, such as sign in windows, cookie preference popups, newsletter signup banners, autoplay videos, and more.

Distraction Control can be used to hide static content on a page, but it is not an ad blocker and cannot be used to permanently hide ads. An ad can be temporarily hidden, but the feature was not designed for ads, and an ad will reappear when it refreshes. It was not created for elements on a webpage that regularly change.

To use Distraction Control, go to the Page Menu and select Hide Distracting Items. You can select an area on the page that you want to hide, and static content that you select will remain hidden. It is a good way to eliminate the pesky popovers that show up when browsing online stores, reading articles, and more. iPhone, iPad, and Mac users need to opt in to hiding elements on the page, and Apple says that nothing is hidden that is not proactively selected.

When hiding a cookie banner or GDPR popup with Distraction Control, the function is the same as closing a banner without submitting website preferences at all.

Your Distraction Control settings are on-device and will not sync from device to device, so you will need to hide website elements on each one of your devices. You can use the "Show Hidden Items" option by going to the Safari search field to instantly see all hidden elements on a webpage.

Distraction Control is available in the fifth iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia developer betas, and it should soon be available to public beta testers as well.

Distraction Control is just one of the new features that Apple is introducing in Safari, and it joins other options like the Highlights feature for quickly surfacing info you might want to see on a website, the redesigned Reader interface with table of contents and summaries, and the video viewer that removes distractions when watching a video on a webpage.

Related Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia

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Top Rated Comments

LouisPiper Avatar
LouisPiper
18 months ago

This kind of feature is just unimaginably stupid. While some websites may be bloated with crap everywhere...just go to a different site. Users should not be able to hide random elements that the developer put there for a reason.
Terrible take.
Score: 36 Votes (Like | Disagree)
LouisPiper Avatar
LouisPiper
18 months ago

Nope. Literal truth. There is no reason why a user should be able to start manipulating elements on a web page or web app, and I'm certain you can't think of one.
Accessibility? Readability? Increasing contrast? Removing the "sign up and get 10% off your order" pop up before you've even seen the page?

"Just go to a different site" is idealistic at best and juvenile at worst. This isn't Walmart vs Target. Many of these sites are highly specialized and you could want to read/interact with the content and also not get bombarded with ads, strange/broken designs, etc foisted upon you by the sales division.

Lastly, it isn't like this is new. This is a super charged Reader Mode, like people have been using for years. What an absolutely strange position to take in this era of unabated web clutter. What's next? Telling people to take another road instead of fixing potholes?
Score: 36 Votes (Like | Disagree)
KorvaxChris Avatar
KorvaxChris
18 months ago

Nope. Literal truth. There is no reason why a user should be able to start manipulating elements on a web page or web app, and I'm certain you can't think of one.
There are plenty of reasons why someone would want/need the ability to manipulate certain elements on a webpage. Accessibility being probably the biggest one.

This is a pretty disingenuous statement.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Lounge vibes 05 Avatar
Lounge vibes 05
18 months ago

Nope. Literal truth. There is no reason why a user should be able to start manipulating elements on a web page or web app, and I'm certain you can't think of one.
As a blind person who relies on a screenreader, cookie pop-ups and other nonsense has made huge parts of the Internet a usability nightmare.
The pop-ups are usually completely unlabeled so not accessible, create massive usability problems, and really badly developed ones can bring VoiceOver on the Mac completely down with a full system restart being the only solution.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jz0309 Avatar
jz0309
18 months ago
The biggest distraction on websites is: ads
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dynamojoe Avatar
dynamojoe
18 months ago

Nope. Literal truth. There is no reason why a user should be able to start manipulating elements on a web page or web app, and I'm certain you can't think of one.
I’m with LouisPiper on this. I’d love to get rid of some web elements. I’m tired of the prompt to log into some sites with my google ID, but it doesn’t take ”never” for an answer. I hate it when a page I’m reading goes gray to attract my attention to a coupon code (or what they think about my adblocker). Giving me more tools is a good thing even if I don’t use them.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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