The updated Safari app is Apple’s best-kept secret in iOS 18

Safari, for all its quirks, still commands the lion’s share of web browsers on Apple products. But compared to what its rivals offer on Android, it also comes out as the laziest in terms of innovation.

With iOS 18, Apple is turning the AI knob to the max, and the ripple effects of that approach are reflected in the latest builds of iOS and iPadOS, as well. Much attention has also been paid to making the web browser more convenient.

But a couple of features really stand out, and they dramatically improve one of Safari’s fundamental utilities: providing information on a screen in a less frustrating fashion.

Finally, a worthy reader

When Apple announced Reader mode in Safari across all its platforms, I dismissed it as just another small update. But the execution has really stood out for me, especially the tasteful background colors and how clean everything looks right from the start.

As soon as you land on a compatible website, the URL bar flashes a “Reader Mode available” message. In case you miss it, the icon to the left end of the pill-shaped bar also changes its shape to that of a notebook held vertically.

Tapping on it opens a small window with two prominent buttons: Show Reader and Listen to Page. Both are pretty self-descriptive. Once you enable the Reader mode for a webpage, it just doesn’t pick a random background color. Instead, it plays to the tunes of your phone’s default light/dark mode settings. So, if you’ve got light mode enabled, the Reader mode picks up the theme with a black background.

In case you’re wondering, there are four colors to choose from: white, black, gray, and beige. The dark version looks the best, but for reading, the beige color scheme, with its vintage newspaper-esque feel, takes the cake. It’s funny that Reader mode doesn’t work on Apple’s website. Irony, eh? Jokes apart, you can adjust size and font without losing yourself in a maze of hidden settings.

Apple has created a clean scrolling list of fonts in the same pop-up window as the core reading controls, alongside page magnification adjustments. Another understated perk is that you can set the Reader mode to trigger automatically for any website of your choice.

For example, if you’re currently reading this article on Digital Trends, tap the three-dot ellipsis icon in the Reader mode window, and as it expands, enable the toggle that says “Use Reader Automatically.”

Of course, it’s AI season, so a smattering of Apple Intelligence is making its way to the Reader mode in Safari. It only makes sense, especially when it serves a purpose and is not merely there for some gimmick, unlike what we recently saw with Google’s Pixel Studio app.

You may also notice a pink icon right below the headline of a webpage, proclaiming the word “Summarize” in bold. Well, it does exactly what it says. Tap on it, and you will see a colorful wave passing over the text for a few seconds. Voila, you have a summary presented right at the top.

But what’s not-so-voila about this summary is that it’s not always accurate. Occasionally, it can simply miss the most important elements of the story, but otherwise, it does a fairly good job of diluting a long story into a concise version. It’s not surprising, as the Summarizer feature in the Mail app also makes similar mistakes. As the adage goes, it’s just another day for AI.

On the Android side, the situation is a bit complicated. Chrome on mobile lacks a native Reader mode. You have to download a dedicated app by Google from the Play Store, head back to Chrome, and then tap on the floating shortcut to enable Reader mode on any webpage of your choice. Apple has a better implementation here, and it shows.

Snap, and it shall be done

In 2019, Google added the Infinity Gauntlet to its search results. A click on this apocalyptic hand wiped half the search results — gone, reduced to atoms — with the same kind of animation as the Avengers vanishing into nothingness when the Mad Titan snapped his fingers.

Apple has added something similar to Safari with iOS 18. But instead of restoring balance to the universe in a murderous fashion, this one wipes off visual distractions from a webpage. Think of pesky ads, scrolling widgets, pop-up videos, and other unnecessary items.

It can wipe anything. The headline, images, embeds, pop-ups, unnecessary social icons … whatever you’d like. Heck, go ahead, wipe off the entire text, and stare into the nothingness of a bright OLED screen. All you need to do is tap the Reader mode icon in the URL bar and select “Hide distracting items.”

Next, scroll through the webpage, find any distracting element, and select it. It will gloriously vanish like sand flying in a desert storm. It’s beautiful to witness, even though it’s tedious, compared to the convenience of having a pristine view in Reader mode.

But I think it’s more of a fail-safe measure for web pages where Reader mode can’t be enabled, such as Apple’s own web page that describes the new iOS 18 feature. On a serious note, I don’t know how happy advertisers are about this feature, but it certainly impacts the click-driven rule for studying (read: rewarding) the impact of ads.

A few other niceties

There are some other new features that haven’t received much attention, but they are here nonetheless. Highlights are a neat addition to flash important information from a web page in a more noticeable fashion. Apple has also made the native browsing tools context-aware. You will see Reader mode controls and the voice reader facility only on web pages where they make sense. For example, they won’t appear on your bank’s website.

Say you land on a website with content in a non-native language. Instead of rummaging through the menu for the translate button, in iOS 18, you will see it in the quick pop-up with a single tap on the left edge of the URL bar. Apple has also pulled tools that used to be hidden behind a few layers and now prominently shows them as a scrolling list in the main Safari toolbar. These include core tab controls, page actions, and link behavior.

Furthermore, you can adjust their position to your liking based on how frequently you use them. Finally, the Apple browser now supports extensions and content blockers in web apps. Many other technical changes have also been made in the background, which you can read about on Apple’s website.

Overall, Safari in iOS 18 (and iPadOS 18) is not a revolution by any stretch of the imagination. But for the new features that are here, they’ve been executed nicely. And I’ll take that instead of an ambitious but buggy mess.

But more than anything, it’s a practically helpful set of features. This isn’t a flashy set of AI tricks that need a lot of pricey computational power. It all lives in an app that you visit regularly for meaningful tasks. And I love it.