Apple devices work like a charm due to the harmony between its hardware and software. They outperform other flagship smartphones in certain situations because of this particular optimization.
Safari is the default web browser available with iOS devices. Since the Safari browser features the Apple-made Webkit engine, it results in highly optimized and fast browsing experience.
There are plenty of features to talk about in the Safari browser that helps users to have safe and secure web browsing. I feel Safari outperforms Google Chrome in terms of performance and overall smoothness of browsing experience.
So, in this article, let us see some features, overview, and setting options for the Safari browser for iOS.
Contents
Homepage Layout
The homepage in Safari is elementary, with the address or search bar at the top of the page. We can access icons of favorite sites, bookmarks, and bookmark folders at the center.
Towards the bottom, we can find frequently visited sites. So it will be easier to access them even if we did not save it as a bookmark.
At the very bottom, there is the navigation bar with options like forward/back and tab management.
Safari Settings
The settings options for Safari are accessible in two different ways. For instance, frequently used settings within the browser can be changed. Some advanced settings have to be modified by going into Settings > Safari.
Font and web settings
This menu has options to change the font size as per your requirement. Since the browser can view desktop web pages, you can enable it by selecting the Request Desktop Site option from this menu.
This option will be beneficial to view web pages like Google Sheets without separately installing the sheets app.
Also, Safari gives the ability to change settings for individual websites. Safari applies these settings when you load that particular webpage.
Safari Phone Settings
Within Safari Settings, you can change the default search engine to your preferred one. Also, you can turn the suggestion from the search engine or Safari on and off.
You can modify some page-specific settings can in here. By this, you can change microphone, camera, or location access for specific sites as per your preference.
Privacy and Security Settings
Privacy settings will help to avoid ad networks tracking your info. You can set the browser set up to prevent tracking all cookies. But certain websites require cookies, and it’s not a good option to avoid all of them.
Also, you can prevent cross-site tracking. Cross-site tracking means collecting data from users across the websites they visit. It can restrict by enabling Privacy settings.
Private Browsing
Who doesn’t love the incognito mode? Private browsing will not save any browsing history, including pages, usernames, or password information, etc. Safari removes everything upon closing the Private tab, including cookies.
I would love to search for some stuff quickly without leaving any history trails. Because we may forget to clear history, and it may cause some personal problems later. Hence, I prefer Private browsing mode at certain times.
Text Copying and Quick Sharing
Although text copying is similar to other browsers, upon long pressing on a text, it will bring up the text selector.
Adjust the cursors to select text required. Now you can directly choose whether to Copy, Lookup, or Share… directly from the pop-up above the selected text.
Sharing websites are straightforward. Safari allows us to share webpages as web archives or PDF files. These options can come in handy, especially for content writers. Or you can simply share the web site‘s link to anyone through iMessage or other messaging tools you use.
Tab Management
Tab management in Safari is very efficient when compared to other alternatives. When you tap the tabs icon, you can see all the open tabs. You can swipe to close an open tab. Also, one exciting feature is that you can search within the list of open tabs and close matching tabs at once.
You can arrange and organize open tabs to suit your needs. It’s not possible in Chrome, though.
But most of the people end up closing tabs accidentally. Well, if you’ve closed a tab by mistake, you can restore the tab by long pressing on the New tab icon, which will reveal recently closed tabs. Now you can simply tap on it to restore that tab.
Safari has an option to automatically close tabs after a certain period. Most of the people don’t close unwanted tabs. Because of this, Safari will consume a lot of resources when it is not at all necessary. So you can set Safari to close tabs after a day, week, or month as per your needs. It will make the Safari browser to be even more responsive.
Bookmark Management
Bookmarks help us to visit specific webpages without typing them every time quickly. But in Safari, there are many features regarding bookmark management.
For example, you can quickly add multiple open tabs into bookmarks and open all of the pages at once. It will help you to save time compared to opening each website individually.
You can long-press on the bookmark icon and select the Add X tabs to bookmark option. For opening them at once, long press on the bookmark folder and select Open in new tab.
Download Manager
Safari also has a download manager that can help you to manage ongoing downloads. It resembles the one that is available in the mac version of the Safari browser.
When you download anything, say an image, an icon will appear on top. Tapping on it will show downloading files. However, you cannot pause an ongoing download but cancel it by hitting on .
But other options like cancel or show in the folder are possible. But it would have been good to have pause/resume options. Simply tap on the magnification lens icon, it will open the containing folder.
Reader View and Reading list
The reader view allows us to view the page in full screen. This option will be beneficial while reading articles like the one you’re reading now. You can enable reader mode by selecting the icon to the top left corner and tapping on Show reader view.
However, this option can be set as website settings so that whenever you open that particular page, it’ll load in reader view. Just enable the User Reader Automatically option under Settings.
If you’re a person who reads a lot of articles, you can add specific websites to your reading list. And you can read them later by tapping on the 
icon and swiping right to the reader list 
tab.
You can also tap on Show Unread to show articles that you haven’t read. So you won’t miss an article that available in your reading list.
Navigation options
You should already know that long pressing on the back button on the navigation bar shows the history of backward navigation. But in Safari, you can also view history for navigating forward.
You cannot find a forward history feature on other browsers like Chrome. However, many people won’t be using it more frequently. But it’s good to have, and you can try it out.
Bottom Line: Safari for iOS
So to conclude this, Safari is a better choice for iOS users. It’s well integrated into the system and works flawlessly along with it.
Some features help you save some time and maximize your productivity. It’s the right choice for normal web browsing too.
I love the Reader view option, where I can focus on the relevant text, excluding all ads and other flashy website items. It is particularly beneficial while following nay online guide. I wish Chrome iOS had any feature of such sort.
Apart from negative critics, we can say that Apple Safari is a browser built for iOS users exceptionally. Hence it will perform a lot better than other browsers in the market for iOS. As it’s from Apple, we can expect new features to make this browser to be more useful.
Lastly, here are the recommended web browsers for your computer and mobile phone that you should give a try.
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