With the recent release of iOS 18 beta 5, Apple is introducing a nifty feature in Safari that aims to make your web browsing experience more pleasant and less cluttered.
We’re talking about Distraction Control, a tool designed to help you hide those annoying parts of web pages that often disrupt your reading or browsing flow.
Distraction Control is seamlessly integrated into Safari’s Page Menu interface, where you usually find options like Reader and Viewer.
Distraction Control in Safari on iOS 18 beta 5
Now, you’ll notice a new option called “Hide Distracting Items.” Enabling this feature allows you to manually select and hide elements on a webpage that you find distracting.
Think of those pesky sign-in popups, content overlays, and other interruptions that break your concentration.
Once you activate Distraction Control, you can click on different items on a webpage that you want to hide.
These hidden items will remain out of sight even if you refresh or reload the page as long as the content hasn’t changed.
This means you can enjoy a cleaner, more focused browsing experience without having to repeatedly close or dismiss the same interruptions.
Also: 5 hidden iOS 18 features Apple didn’t tell us about that will change how you use your iPhone daily
Apple makes it clear that Distraction Control is not designed to be an ad blocker. While you can temporarily hide ads using this feature, they will reappear when the page is refreshed or reloaded.
The first time you use Distraction Control, Safari will display a pop-up explaining that the feature will not permanently remove ads or other dynamic content areas of a website.
For elements like GDPR banners or cookie request pop-ups, Distraction Control works similarly to manually dismissing these prompts.
It doesn’t serve as an automatic “Accept” or “Decline” for such requests; it merely hides them from view as if you had clicked to close them.
If you ever want to restore any hidden items, you can easily do so by returning to the Page Menu interface in Safari and selecting “Show Hidden Items.”
This gives you full control over what you see and don’t see on a webpage, allowing for a highly customizable browsing experience.
Wrap Up
Distraction Control is now available in iOS 18 beta, iPadOS 18 beta, and macOS Sequoia beta.
These updates are currently rolling out to registered developers. A public beta is expected later this month, and a general release is anticipated next month.
Let me know your thoughts on this new feature, which will be available in Safari later this year when Apple rolls out iOS 18.
