iOS and iPad have changed how Safari indicates where the link will take you and here’s how to disable link preview on iOS or know where the webpage URL will take you on iPhone and iPad.
On iOS 12 and earlier, just click and hold a hyperlink for a few seconds until a worksheet with the destination URL shown above appears. On iOS 13 and iPadOS, the action sheet is set by default to display an actual live preview of the destination URL.
To reverse this behavior, you must disable link previews in Safari. Simply visit Settings → Safari because Apple made this switch available directly from the action sheet.
Follow us as we show you how to disable webpage previews in Safari so you can see the destination URL as the link will take you without opening the page.
As Apple’s focus shifted away from 3D Touch to Haptic Touch, link preview is now possible on any iPhone or iPad running iOS 13 or iPadOS. But despite its beneficial nature, I find the job annoying to handle most of the time. This made me think about how to disable link previews on iOS 13 and iPadOS will be beneficial to you.
How to Disable iOS Safari Link Preview on iPhone and iPad
iOS 13 has polished Safari in many ways. Safari now has a download panel where all of your downloads are listed. iOS 13 also added the option to hide the bottom toolbar while scrolling and many of these small but important changes. Now, most of the users are loved.
However, one feature that receives mixed reviews is the link preview in Safari on the new iPhone and iPad with iOS 13. Some have no problem with this, while others think it would be better if they could disable it.
Not looking for more details here in this post, I tell you the steps to disable link preview in Safari in iOS 13 on iPhone and iPad. Let’s get into that.
- Open Safari on iPhone or iPad with iOS 13.
- Now go to any webpage that contains the hyperlink. Or here is a link for you. Touch and hold this link for a second or two. Now you will see a preview of this link.
- Click on a small preview in the top right.
To check, touch, and hold the link above again. You will not see a preview of the page. You will now see only the page and action sheet link below. Also, if you decide at any time that you want to see the preview, just click “Click to show preview.”
Do you use the iOS 13 Version before iOS 13.2?
There is no more for this tutorial. However, if your iPhone or iPad is on any iOS 13 version released prior to iOS 13.2, the Hide Preview link will be named Hide Link Previews and displayed in the popup worksheet. Clicking this will do the job. See the screenshot below.
The ability to peek at links while using native applications like Safari, Mail, and Notes is useful when I don’t want to waste time opening web pages to close quickly.
However, the huge preview pane works as a major drawback whenever I want to open a link in a new tab, copy it to my clipboard, or perform any of the other context menu actions associated with 3D / Haptic Touch gesture.
Worse, activating link previews also means I can’t see full URLs either. For all that I know, the link I am previewing can be a malicious site, where the visible “preview” denies as legitimate. Mail app users, beware!
Moreover, the actual work of the link preview also ends up with bandwidth consumption. If you use a solid mobile data plan, searching all the time may cause links to exceed your data limits. Fortunately, turning off link previews is very easy, provided you know where to look.
Turn off Preview Links in IOS 13 and iPads
Start by previewing a link in any of the original iOS or iPadOS applications that support the function, whether it is Safari, Mail, Messages, or Notes. Once the link preview appears on the screen, click the small Hide Preview label in the upper-right corner of the preview pane. It’s small and somewhat difficult to define, especially if dark mode is enabled on your iPhone or iPad.
And that’s all. The preview pane will completely disappear, and you’ll see the link’s actual URL in place instead, along with the context menu below it.
Link previews will be disabled in all other iOS and iPadOS native apps. This means that you will not have to waste time disrupting the functions in every application that will trigger these brutalities.
Note: Older versions of iOS 13 and iPad – 13.2 and earlier precisely – had the option to disable link previews as the actual context menu item.
Re-enabling link previews on iOS 13 and iPadOS is also easy. Make 3D Touch or Haptic Touch gesture to any link in Safari, Notes, Mail, etc. Follow by clicking on Tap to Show Preview at the top of the link URL box; you’re back to work. Again, the setting will be applied to other applications automatically.
In addition to the native iOS 13 and iPad apps, you may also find the ability to preview links in some third-party apps, albeit rare. However, these apps may not allow you to disable link previews. At least, this was the case with Firefox for iOS at the time of writing this post. If you encounter such an application, you should wait for the update, which provides built-in methods to disable the function.
This is how you can disable link preview in Safari in iOS 13 on iPhone and iPad. After turning this option off whenever you touch and hold a link, you will feel that the options appear a little faster.