Get safari to work your way

2 min read

Better Safari

Tame the Tab Bar, eliminate irritations and make browsing better

IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes

YOU WILL LEARN How to transform Safari to improve your browsing experience

YOU’LL NEED iPadOS 15 or later

Safari is one of the most important apps on your iPad, because it’s your way into the worldwide web. And if you want the fully fledged web experience without being locked into the walled gardens and restricted features of some website-specific apps, it can also be your online ally.

The latest version of Safari is the best yet, with plenty of features that will help you browse better, protect your privacy and eliminate all kinds of irritations. But the arrival of this Safari was also rather controversial. As with iPhone, Safari’s Tab Bar was moved to the bottom of the display. And while that works fine for the smaller iPhone, it felt daft on the bigger iPad – so, thankfully, Apple reconsidered and it’s back to its proper place. However, it works differently than before, and has better control over tabs and their organisation. There’s also more control over Safari’s settings, and there’s support for even more extensions to make Safari do exactly what you want it to.

Genius tip!

Ad blocking doesn’t need to happen across all websites. Tap the AA icon for a specific website to edit its content settings.

HOW TO Make Safari work for you

1 Use your voice

If you find it a bit awkward to type when relaxing on the sofa, use voice search instead. Simply tap Safari’s Tab Bar address field, then tap the microphone icon to tell your iPad what you’re looking for.

2 Change the defaults

Go into Settings > Safari and you can change all kinds of things, such as whether Safari should block pop-up windows and where to save downloads. You can also adjust search options, such as showing suggestions.

3 Change search engine

If you don’t want Google (Safari’s default search engine) in the Tab Bar, try Yahoo, Bing, the privacy-focused DuckDuckGo or the treeplanting Ecosia instead. This setting lives in Settings > Safari > Search Engine.