It works best with elements you know you won’t want to interact with, whether it’s an ad with a 10% discount or a navigation bar that offers links to similar items. Also, while it’s not promoted as an ad blocker, Distraction Control can be used to hide ads to a certain extent, though the ads tend to reappear as you continue browsing.
If you use Distraction Control to dismiss a pop-up that asks you to set your preferences, accept cookies, or something similar, the website will act as if you had never interacted with the dialog: for example, in the case of cookies, the site may not remember your location or preferences, since they have not been allowed. On some pages, it may take a bit of trial and error to figure out what you can hide and keep everything working as normal.
How to use Safari distraction control
Safari doesn’t automatically identify and hide distracting elements; you have to hide them manually if you don’t want them visible. Load a web page and scroll to the part of the page that shows the elements you want to hide from view—it’s a quirk of Distraction Control (at least for now) that you can’t scroll through a website while you’re also hiding parts of it.
Tap the icon to the left of the address bar at the bottom of the Safari interface, which looks like a rectangle over several lines. From there, choose Hide distracting elements:You will then be able to select parts of the web page on the screen and you will be able to touch the Hide button on any item to dismiss it (which is accompanied by a satisfying little animation).
Sometimes the web page will rearrange itself to account for the missing element, but sometimes it won’t – most likely it depends on what you’re hiding and how the page was coded. You can continue hiding elements and a running total will be kept at the bottom of the screen. When you’re happy with how the page looks, tap Made to return to navigation (or tap Cancel to undo changes).
If you want to restore items you’ve hidden, tap the same button to the left of the address bar at the bottom of the Safari interface, then choose Show hidden items and Show to confirm. Anything you’ve previously hidden will now appear again; there’s no option to unhide items one by one.
