Two Little Known Safari Features for the iPhone

Apple’s mobile browser is packed with features. They make it easier to use extensions and protect your privacy.

Safari Header

RAYMOND OGLESBY @RaymondOglesby2
September 13, 2022

Apple’s mobile browser is packed with features. They make it easier to use extensions and protect your privacy. Let’s explore two little-known features that all iPhone owners need to know about.

Note! Technology is always changing. This means if you are implementing this post, your OS, iOS, iPadOS, and Android screens or text may not resemble this post’s contents, especially, if you are looking at a post years old.

This is for the iPhone. Screenshots are from iPhone XR running iOS 15.5+

Copyright Scott Adams, Inc./Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS

Safari Extensions

Safari gained the ability to use extensions with the arrival of iOS 15. This allows you to vastly expand the capabilities of Apple’s browser with third-party add-ons, though you will need to go through Apple’s channels to do so.

The extensions are in the App Store. First, open the App Store. Refer to the below image:

Accessing the App Store

Next, tap on Apps at the bottom of the screen. See the below image:

Selecting Apps

Now, scroll way down to the bottom of the page and find the Safari Extensions category under Top Categories. Tap See All if it’s not visible. From here you can install extensions just as you would any other app. See the following image:

Accessing Top Categories

Next, scroll down and tap Safari Extensions. Refer to the below image:

Selecting Safari Extensions

Now, you can install extensions just as you would any other app. See the below image:

Install an extension by tapping GET

Next, many apps are bundled with Safari Extensions (just like Apple Watch apps and Home Screen widgets). To enable or disable these, head to:

Settings > Safari > Extensions

See the following image:

Safari Extensions

Advanced Privacy Features

Safari has a few privacy settings that you may have already enabled, but it’s worth checking they are on if you’re concerned about online privacy.

First, open Settings. Refer to the below image:

Accessing Settings

Now, tap Safari. See the below image:

Selecting Safari

Next, scroll down to the Privacy & Security section. You can enable or disable the listed options. We recommend enabling each option except Block All Cookies and Privacy Preserving Ad Measurement by turning their toggle to ON. See the following image:

Setting Privacy options

Now, tap the Hide IP Address and checkmark the From Trackers option. Refer to the below image:

Hide IP Address from Trackers

Quote For the Day

If you expect technology to solve your problems, you don’t understand technology or your problems.

Raymond Oglesby, author of TechSavvy.Life

Tweet Info

That’s it. Please feel free to share this post! One way to share is via Twitter.

Just click the Tweet icon below. This will launch Twitter where you click its icon to post the Tweet.

Checkout TechSavvy.Life for blog posts on smartphones, PCs, and Macs! You may email us at contact@techsavvy.life for comments or questions.

I Would Like to Hear From You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love to hear from you. Do you have a computer or smart device tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Just send an email to contact@techsavvy.life. Please mention the device, app, and version you are using. To help us out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

Author’s E-Book

You can access the e-book from a Kindle device, the Kindle App for the desktop or smartphone, which is a free app.

The author’s Vietnam eBook on the Battle for Tra Bong Vietnam: Events and Aftermath
Advertisement

Author: Raymond

I am Raymond Oglesby, an Information Technology (IT) specialist with 30 years in the field. I have taught Microsoft Applications and troubleshot computers in 15 countries and many States. My career was focused on mainframes and desktops from application development to implementation. I have written hundreds of programs for various architectures. I decided to start a blog to share my knowledge and experiences with you. I plan on updating this blog at least twice a week about smart phone apps to Windows. Please feel free to leave a Comment or Tweet. I would love to hear from you. Do you have a computer tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: