Apple apparently didn't include all of Safari's new features in its packed WWDC 2024 presentation in June, as it just announced “one more thing.” In addition to updates to Reader, a new webpage summary tool called “Highlights,” and “Viewer” (to make watching videos less of a chore), Apple also wants to help clean up webpages.
Called “Distraction Control,” Safari will now let you select elements on a web page, such as a pop-up to register your phone number for a discount code, hide it, and then remember that you want it hidden.
It's coming to Safari on macOS Sequoia, iOS 18, and iPadOS 18 this fall (I think sometime between September and October 2024), but developers will get it right now as beta 5 for those operating systems is currently rolling out.
Much like Reader, Apple wants to make its new feature as simple as possible. To get started, navigate to the Smart Search bar, click on it, and select “Hide Distracting Items.” You can then select the elements on a web page that you want to hide. Once selected, the element will float and become invisible or turn into some sort of magical Safari stardust.
While you can just click an “X” or hit the escape key to dismiss most pop-ups or content overlays on the web these days, the benefit of this feature is that it has memory. So, if you’re browsing to J. Crew to buy button-down shirts and dismiss the email or phone number sign-up using Distraction Control, it will remember it the next time you open it on your Mac. You’ll know it’s working by not seeing the pop-up, but there will also be a bright icon inside the search bar. Plus, you can easily unhide hidden items, too.
However, this feature doesn’t sync across platforms. If you hide content in Safari on a Mac, it will remember it the next time you use the browser on that device, but it won’t sync to your iPhone in iOS 18 or your iPad in iPadOS 18. You can use it across all Apple devices, though, since it will be built in.
It is not an ad blocker
Considering we haven't tested the new feature yet, there's a chance it will allow you to hide other elements. It's not necessarily designed to hide ads (although you can already use this reader), but it won't work on content overlays or changing pop-ups. Distraction Control isn't designed to hide promotions or ads.
Once we get a chance to test it out in the latest developer beta, we'll be interested to see which elements can be hidden, and how many, since it supports more than one. Of course, as with any developer beta feature, we can expect some bugs to creep in and even aspects of the interface or controls to change before it's available to all users.
Apple isn't powering this feature with artificial intelligence (AI), either general AI or the special version of Apple Intelligence. Instead, Safari has some smart features built in that allow it to read a web page and recognize when the content changes or adapts.
'Distraction Control' is joining Highlights, Reader, and Viewer in the latest developer betas of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia now and will arrive when the operating systems ship to all users later in 2024. You'll need to be on the standard developer beta of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, or macOS Sequoia to play with this, as there's no new beta for iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, or macOS Sequoia 15.1 yet.
Unlike Apple Intelligence, there are no specific device requirements here either, so if your iPhone gets iOS 18, your iPad gets iPadOS 18, or your Mac gets Sequoia, you're good to go.
Some changes in the photos
Additionally, the developer beta 5 of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia will also introduce some changes to Photos, which already has a major redesign coming soon. It somewhat mirrors the Control Center and Home screen and offers plenty of customization possibilities.
With beta 5, the Recent Days tab that lets you scroll through snaps grouped by date will no longer integrate saved content, and the Carousel view is gone entirely. The All Photos view will now do a better job of displaying your entire library, and albums now automatically appear higher on the page for users who use the feature a lot.
