Apple has added Distraction Control to its Safari browser, which lets you hide distracting elements such as cookie settings pop-ups from open web pages.
Image source: youtube.com/@macrumors
The function debuted in the fifth beta versions of iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia released yesterday for developers. To use it, you need to select the “Hide distracting elements” option in the browser menu, and then specify the actual elements that you want to remove from the currently open page. When elements are hidden, they disappear with a smooth animation effect.
When you start working with the function, the browser displays a warning that “hiding distracting elements will not lead to the complete removal of advertising and other frequently updated content,” that is, it cannot be used as an ad blocker. It should also be noted that the function does not support synchronization – all annoying elements of the site will have to be blocked on different devices separately.
In addition to a new, previously unannounced browser function, the next beta version of iOS 18 brought a number of other innovations. In particular, in the Photos application, the previously added viewing of pictures in carousel mode has been removed – it confused users and duplicated materials.