I spend a lot of time reading articles on my iPhone and iPad. Pop-ups, ads, and sticky banners keep getting in the way. That’s why the “Hide Distracting Items” feature in Safari matters so much to me. It gives me control. I remove the clutter, keep the content, and keep reading.
Apple built this into Safari on iPhone and iPad, and it works the same way on the Mac, which matters when your work moves across screens.
How it works
When you open a webpage in Safari, tap the page menu (the “aA” or menu symbol in the address bar), then choose Hide Distracting Items. You tap any screen elements you want gone, an ad, a sign-in prompt, a banner, and Safari just hides them. The rest of the page stays intact. If you go back later to the same page, those hidden items stay hidden unless you choose to show them again.
Blocking software is useful but often fails when websites change their layout or code. With this feature, you pick exactly what to hide. No waiting for filter‐list updates. No app messing with the page’s structure. It keeps the reading smooth.
Plus, when you use it alongside Safari’s Reader mode and a content/ad blocker, you get a very clean reading experience. Reader mode strips out formatting and moves everything into a simple text view. Hide Distracting Items keeps the original layout but removes annoyances you don’t want.
Where it could improve
It’s not perfect. You must manually activate it each time you land on a new page and select the elements one by one. If you scroll a lot while selecting, it’s a bit clunky. It doesn’t sync hidden items across devices automatically. For most pages, though, these are small trade-offs for the clarity you get.
Here’s a tip: If you’re reading a long article, try this flow: open the page menu > Hide Distracting Items > tap the elements you don’t want > Done. Use Reader mode for the main text if you want, and use this feature for everything else.
I prefer features that make my web reading simpler and faster. Hide Distracting Items really does that. It’s quietly one of the best things added to Safari in years.
