Even 100% legitimate websites are not immune to hitting you with pop ups these days (present company not excluded). Whether they’re asking you to subscribe to a newsletter (I do suggest signing up for The Download), imploring you to allow browser notifications, or just letting you know about a new feature, these boxes can be pretty distracting, especially if they need to be manually closed every time you visit a site. That’s why Apple is introducing a new “Distraction Control” feature to Safari that should make it easier to get right to your content the instant it loads in.
Debuting in iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia later this fall (and available in the beta versions today), Distraction Control lets users click on a button near their address bar to enter a mode where they can manually click on pop ups to remove them from a site. While that sounds like an extra step over just closing the pop up normally, what's key is that Distraction Control will then remember that element and automatically remove it the next time you visit the site.
Distraction Control is designed to address recurring site elements, or those that don’t change on every visit. So while users can apply it to any part of any website, ads, articles, or other content that frequently changes will likely still load as usual the next time they visit it—meaning it won't be a substitute for your current ad blocker, but will help you if you've already subscribed to a site's newsletter and don't want to be asked again.
How to use Distraction Control on Safari
To use Distraction Control (once you've upgraded your OS to one of those noted above), click on the - icon on the left-hand side of the Safari address bar (Apple calls it the “hide icon”), then click “Hide distracting items.” Press OK on the box that pops up. Then, click on whatever you want Safari to hide, and it should disappear from view (as well as play an animation that makes it look like it’s been snapped out of existence by Thanos).
If it’s the type of pop up that shows up every time you visit a site, it should stay gone the next time you visit said site. Press Done to close Distraction Control, or Cancel to undo your Thanos snap like Iron Man.
To unhide an item, just click the - icon again, then select “Show Hidden Items.”
And that’s it. Safari Distraction Control is hitting the iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia betas later today