For many years, surfing on an iPad with Safari wasn't the best experience. Often you had to deal with oversized sites made for the iPhone, which was just ridiculous. And if that wasn't enough, it lacked essential features such as a download manager. However, that all changed for the better with iPadOS.
Contents1. Customize sites and pages2. Don't forget your customizations 3. Link previews4. Enable multi-window navigation5. Change the location of the download manager6. Close tabs automatically7. Show Keyboard Shortcuts Safari Rules on iPadOS
You now have access to a classroom browsing experience desktop (finally), and there's a dedicated download manager to go with it. However, there is much more than meets the eye. So let's take a look at many not-so-obvious Safari features and functionality related to the iPadOS version that you can use to boost your browsing experience.
Whenever Safari has finished loading a site, look in the left corner of the address bar and you'll see what looks like a small font size button (aA ). Tap it and you'll come across a menu with a neat list of options. These can be used to personalize your experience with the site on the fly.
At the top of the menu you will see font size controls which allow you to zoom in or out on the page – this was only present in Reader View previously . The controls work great, and Safari automatically readjusts page elements to make sure they match your preferred font zoom setting.
There is an option to switch to Reader View (if supported by the site). Also, there is a toggle to launch the site in mobile view (which is no longer the default).
And for cases where content blockers are wreaking havoc on certain sites, you also have the option to easily disable them. Previously, you had to hold down the Reload icon to access the option. Now the new location is much more convenient.
The ability to temporarily hide the address bar and tab bar is also present, which is very useful if you want to have more screen real estate with which to work.
Have you ever wished you could configure specific sites to remember your preferences even on subsequent visits? Well, Safari on iPadOS lets you do that. Yes, even when you quit the browser completely and relaunch it.
Just tap the Website Settings option at the bottom of the menu (aA). Then you can configure the site to load in desktop or mobile mode by default, automatically use Reader View (if available), or enable/disable content blockers as needed.
The ability to stick with Reader View is an important positive element. Dark Mode, while widely available on iPadOS, is not present on web pages. However, you can emulate dark mode in Reader View. So not having to manually switch to Reader View every time you go to another page works wonders.
In addition, there are also an array of privacy settings that you can configure. You can allow or block a particular site form from accessing your camera, microphone, or location.
If you want Safari to apply some of these customizations to all sites, you can do that too. Head to the Settings app, tap on Safari, then scroll down to the Settings for Websites section.
Sometimes links can be misleading. With no easily visible way to view links like on the desktop, you often end up going back or closing tabs if the load doesn't work for you.
But this is no longer the case thanks to the link preview. iPhones with 3D Touch have had this feature for a while, but Apple's new shift to Haptic Touch means you can easily preview links before deciding to load them.
Just long press a link and you'll see a snapshot of the actual page it points to in real time. Pretty cool, right? Alternatively, you can choose to show only the link URL instead of the preview window – hit Hide page previews in the context menu to make this happen.
As of iOS 10, Safari supports split view, where you can have two browser windows loaded side by side. But in iPadOS, Apple has brightened things up with multi-window support, just like on a desktop computer. In other words, you can now load as many separate instances of Safari as you want.
Simply press and hold the tab switcher icon, then press Open New Window to launch Safari in a completely different window. Or long-press any link, then tap Open in new window. The new window will initially appear in split view, but you can immediately resize it in full-screen mode.
You can view all open windows using of App Exposé. To do this, open the Dock, then tap the Safari icon.
Whenever you want to group all windows into one single instance of Safari, long-press the tab switcher icon on one of the windows, then tap Merge Windows.
Safari now has a dedicated download manager. It easily appears next to the address bar whenever you initiate a download and will continue to download your files even in the background. But the default location is incorrectly located in iCloud Drive. Which means that any files you download not only end up eating up space on iCloud Drive, but are also uploaded to the cloud.
Although it will allow you to access your uploads from any of your other Apple devices, it's far better to move them to local storage. To do this, open the Settings app, tap Safari, then Downloads. Finally, tap On My iPad and Safari will automatically create a Downloads folder there.
Be sure to check out our full guide to Safari's Download Manager for more tips and tricks.
Use Safari for a few days and you're bound to open a ton of tabs in the process. Not only is it a bit inconvenient to close them all manually, but they also consume memory, and this is a problem on older iPad models in particular.
But why not let Safari do the work for you square ? Open the Settings app and tap on Safari. Then tap Close Tabs to determine how often (daily, weekly, or monthly) you want your tabs closed for you.
Finally, Safari on iPadOS now supports over 30 keyboard shortcuts. That's something if you intend to use your iPad with a smart keyboard. However, you don't have to memorize all of them.
Press and hold the Command key on your keyboard to display an interesting list of all shortcuts when using Safari. The list of shortcuts goes through the pages and you will have to go through the list several times to check them all. These shortcuts will increase your productivity, so use them to the fullest.
iPadOS has truly changed the way the iPad can be used for everyday work. It's great to see Safari getting the full treatment it deserves. Desktop mode, for example, works like a charm, and running entire web apps like Google Docs feels as good as working on a Mac. Combine it with a smart keyboard and you have almost a perfect MacBook replacement in your hands.
Then: Tired of using Safari on your iPhone? Check out these 9 awesome browsers instead.
