In Safari, we’re probably used to having lots of things popping up on our screens, whether it’s cookie messages, adverts, or prompts to subscribe to newsletters – all those sorts of things that get in the way of browsing the internet. With iOS 18, Safari has a new feature called Remove Distractions, which does exactly what it says on the tin.

I’m going to use my website as an example here. As you can see, at the top, there’s a section for collections of QuickTips videos. Imagine that’s a pop-up advert or a newsletter subscription prompt – something you want to get rid of. On the address bar at the bottom, you’re going to press the web page options button, and then from there, tap on Hide Distracting Items. At this point, the address bar will change, and it will encourage you to select a distracting item.

I’m going to tap on that collections section at the top, and you’ll see that the iPhone is clever enough to recognise it as a distinct part of the web page. Tapping on the Hide button does this really cool animation like it’s blowing away, like confetti in the wind, and then that part of my web page has gone. You can do this with more than one item per page as well. For example, if I tap on one of my videos here, then go to web page options and Hide Distracting Items, I can select the headlines at the top, remove the description, and even hide the video if I wanted to. Any element of that page can be removed, and doing this will make them disappear again with that lovely animation.

Of course, if you change your mind and want to bring something back, press on web page options again and this time go to Show Hidden Items. You’ll get a little prompt, and it’ll put the web page back to normal for you. This usually works on repeated visits to websites – it will remember what you’ve hidden – but if the content changes regularly, like if it’s an advert that reloads, sometimes that will slip through the net.

This is a really nice feature for browsing the internet in peace and quiet, and it’s also really useful if you want to take a screenshot of a web page without certain elements appearing in that screenshot. I think this is actually a really interesting feature in iOS 18. I spent the summer exploring the new operating system to find out what’s new and what’s changed beyond the headline features like dark mode icons and the new Control Centre.

If you want to see what else your iPhone can do – and spoiler alert, there’s a lot – I’ve written an eBook, linked below. It’s called 100 QuickTips for iOS 18, and it will guide you through what your phone can do in friendly and easy-to-follow language, so you can impress your friends with all the new features in iOS 18.