6 Expert Safari Web Browsing Tips for iOS and macOS

Safari has been the default web browser on Mac systems since Mac OS X v10.3 released in October of 2003. Several years later, Safari also became the default browser for the iPhone when it was announced in 2007 – one of the first fully functional web browsers for mobile devices. Nowadays Safari is one of the most popular browsers on the market, its popularity bolstered by its default status on the iPhone and iPad.

If you’ve been using Safari for quite some time, you’re probably aware of many of the tips/tricks/shortcuts present to give you a better browsing experience.

In Safari for iOS, for example, many people know that you can tap the very top of the screen (just above the clock) to scroll all the way to the top of the page. Many people are also aware of the “find in page” (command/control+F on macOS, within the search bar in iOS) shortcut to find specific text within a page, or how to enable Private Browsing mode for, you know, hiding uh, Christmas presents and the like from prying eyes. However, there are plenty of lesser-known tips and tricks to enhance your browsing experience in Safari – here are some of our favorites.

Manage Tabs Like a Pro

It’s hard to remember what navigating the internet was like without “tabs” in our browsers. First featured in 1997 in a browser called “SimulBrowse” designed by Pasadena software developer Adam Stiles, tabs changed the way we browse the internet. While most of us will typically have 3-4 tabs open at a time, some power users are known to keep dozens, if not hundreds of tabs open at once.

While managing tabs on Safari for macOS is relatively simple, many people are unaware of how to do so in Safari for iOS.

Close and Reorder Tabs

Tapping the “tabs” icon in the lower left corner of the browser allows you to quickly close tabs (by tapping the X in the upper left corner of each individual tab) or re-order them (by tapping and holding a tab, then dragging it to its new position).

Reopen Closed Tabs

Accidentally closed a tab you didn’t want to? View recently closed tabs by tapping the tabs icon, then tapping and holding the new tab (“+” sign) to bring them up.

View Tabs Across Devices

Users can also seamlessly browse in between devices, viewing tabs from their Mac on their iPhone or iPad (and vice versa) using iCloud Tabs. Navigate to iCloud from the Settings App on iOS and/or System Preferences on macOS, and ensure that Safari is activated. Once enabled, users can navigate to the bottom of their open tabs via the tabs icon to view or manage open tabs on their other devices.

Use Safari Reader

The web is full of wonderful content and interesting articles. And those articles are almost always cluttered up by ads, links, and unnecessary images. In order to make sense of all the clutter, Apple introduced Safari Reader in 2010.

Safari Reader gives you the ability to strip articles down to the necessary text and images. According to Apple, this feature allows users to “view a webpage article in one page, formatted for easy reading, and presented without ads, navigation, or other distracting items.”

This little known feature is easy to use, as well. When Safari detects that you’re viewing an article, a small “Reader” button, which looks like four condensed lines of text, pops up to the left of the Smart Search bar. Tapping that icon enables Safari Reader, stripping down the website for easy viewing.

Once in Reader mode, users can also adjust the font size, change the font, and change the background color for optimal reading by tapping the AA icon on the right side of the Smart Search bar.

Safari Reader isn’t available on every webpage, but it sure is convenient where available.

Add Important Articles to Your Reading List

Safari Reader isn’t the only convenient feature that makes reading articles easier. Safari also allows users to save articles for offline viewing later – perfect for those instances where you come across an interesting read, but don’t have time for it, or when you’d like to save something to read for the subway or other areas with poor or no connectivity.

The feature, called the Reading List, was introduced with Safari 5.1 in 2011. The “Add to Reading List” function is easy to access.

1. Simply tap the Share icon (on the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen in iOS, and to the right of the address bar in macOS).
2. Tap the “Add to Reading List” icon to save the page for later viewing.

Accessing the Reading List is just as simple – the Reading List icon sits right next to the Share icon in iOS, and sits just to the left of the address bar in macOS. As long as your Reading List is enabled in your iCloud settings, each webpage within the list is synced across devices, so you can add a webpage to the Reading List on your desktop and read it later on your iPhone.

Autofill Your Credit Cards for Easy Online Shopping

For those that shop online frequently, Safari offers several features that make the experience more convenient. Safari allows users to add credit card information to Safari’s auto-fill feature, so they aren’t required to enter it every time they checkout on a website.

Users can add their credit card information to Autofill in Safari’s preferences.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Navigate to and tap on Safari.
3. Tap Autofill.
4. Tap Saved Credit Cards.
5. Tap Add Credit Card.

Users can then input their credit card information manually, or use the phone’s camera to scan a credit card. The option to scan a credit card will also pop up during the checkout process of most mobile sites.

Users can access the Autofill settings on a macOS device by..

1. Open Safari.
2. Navigate to Preferences.
3. Select Autofill.

Featured Image: Yeamake / Shutterstock, Inc.