7 Best Safari Tips and Tricks for iPadOS

For many years, surfing on an iPad using Safari has not offered the best experiences. Many times you had to deal with extravagant sites designed for the iPhone, and that was ridiculous. And if that wasn’t bad enough, it lacked essential features like the download manager. However, that all changed for the better with iPadOS.

You now (finally) have access to a desktop-class browsing experience, and there’s a dedicated download manager that’s compatible with it. However, there is much more to it than meets the eye. So, let’s take a look at the not-so-obvious Safari features and functions related to the iPadOS version that you can use to enhance your browsing experience.

1. Customize Sites and Pages

When Safari has finished loading a site, look in the left corner of the address bar and you’ll see what a small font-size button (aA) looks like. Tap it and you’ll be greeted with a menu with a neat list of options. These can be used to instantly customize your experience with the site.

At the top of the menu you’ll see font size controls that let you zoom in or out on the page – this was previously only available in Reader View. The controls work very well, and Safari automatically re-adjusts page elements to ensure they fit exactly with 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 (it’s not the default anymore).

And in cases where content blockers are wreaking havoc on certain sites, you also have the option to easily turn them off. Previously, you had to hold down the Reload icon to access the option. Now, the new location is much more convenient.

There is also the ability to temporarily hide the address bar and tab bar, which is very handy if you want to have more screen real estate to work with.

2. Remember Your Customizations

Have you ever wished you could configure certain sites to remember your preferences even on subsequent visits? Well, Safari on iPadOS lets you do that. Yes, even when you exit the browser completely and restart it.

Simply tap the Website Settings option under the (aA) menu. You can then configure the site to load in desktop or mobile mode by default, use Reader View automatically (if available), or enable/disable content blockers according to your needs.

The ability to stay connected to Reader View is a major positive. Although dark mode is widely available in iPadOS, it is not available on web pages. However, you can emulate dark mode in Reader View. So it works wonders to not have to manually switch to Reader View every time you switch to a different page.

There are also a number of privacy settings that you can configure. You can allow or block a specific 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. Go to the Settings app, tap Safari, and then go to Settings for Websites.

3. Link Previews

Sometimes links can be misleading. There’s no easily visible way to view links like on the desktop, so if you don’t like anything that’s loaded, you usually go back or close tabs.

But thanks to the link preview, this is no longer the case. iPhones with 3D Touch have had this feature for a while, but Apple’s switch to Haptic Touch means you can easily preview links before deciding to load them.

Simply long press a link and you will see a snapshot of the actual page it points to in real time. Pretty cool, right? Alternatively, you can choose to have only the URL of the link appear instead of the preview window – tap Hide Page Previews in the context menu for this to happen.

4. Enable Multi-Window Browsing

Since iOS 10 Safari has supported split view where you can have two browser windows loaded side by side. But with iPadOS, Apple spiced things up with multi-window support, just like on a desktop. In other words, you can now install as many individual Safari instances as you want.

Long press the tab switcher icon and then tap Open New Window to launch Safari in a completely different window. Or long-press any link and then tap Open in New Window. The new window will initially appear in split view, but you can immediately resize it to full screen mode.

You can control all open windows using App Exposé. To do this, open the Dock and then tap the Safari icon.

When you want to combine all windows into one Safari instance, long press the tab switcher icon on any of the windows and then tap Combine Windows.

5. Change Download Manager Location

Safari now has a dedicated download manager. When you start a download, it easily appears next to the address bar and continues to download your files even in the background. But the default location is inconvenient within iCloud Drive. This means that the files you download not only consume iCloud Drive space, but are also restored to the cloud.

While this will allow you to access your downloads from your other Apple devices, it’s much better to shift 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 in this location.

Be sure to check out our complete guide on Safari’s Download manager for more tips and tricks.

6. Automatically Close Tabs

Use Safari for a few days and you should have a ton of tabs open in the process. Turning them all off manually is not only a bit cumbersome, it also consumes memory and is a concern, especially on older iPad models.

But why not let Safari do the hard work instead? Open the Settings app and tap Safari. Then tap Close Tabs to set the frequency (daily, weekly, or monthly) you want your tabs to be closed for you.

7. View Keyboard Shortcuts

Finally, Safari on iPadOS now supports over 30 keyboard shortcuts. If you’re looking to use your iPad alongside a smart keyboard, this is one thing. However, you don’t have to memorize every single one of them.

Hold down the Command key on your keyboard to bring up a nifty list of all shortcuts every time you use Safari. The list of shortcuts scrolls through the pages and you have to scroll through the list several times to check them all. These shortcuts will increase your productivity, so make the most of them.

Safari in iPadOS Rules

iPadOS has truly changed the way iPad is used in everyday work. It’s great to see Safari get the full treatment it deserves. For example, desktop mode is a treat, and running any web app like Google Docs feels just as good as working on a Mac. Combine it with a smart keyboard and you have an almost perfect MacBook replacement.

Next: Tired of using Safari on your iPhone? Check out these 9 great browsers instead.