iOS 18’s Distraction Control is a makeshift ad blocker for Safari

iOS 18 beta 5 is now available to enrolled developers, featuring a new Distraction Control option in Safari. Through this fresh addition, users can hide static web elements, such as cookie popups, newsletter banners, and more. While you can technically use Distraction Control on iOS to block web ads, there’s a major limitation barring it from becoming a practical solution.

When hitting the new Hide Distracting Items button in Safari, an alert reads: “Hiding distracting items will not permanently remove ads and other content that update frequently.” This highlights that the feature isn’t designed to block ads on websites. Instead, it’s meant for static banners that don’t continuously refresh.

Distraction Control on iOS preserves hidden web elements indefinitely — as long as they don’t update. So, even if you quit Safari or reload a webpage, the previously hidden elements should stay out of sight. Once an element, like an ad, refreshes, it will appear whenever you reload the website.

Expectedly, Distraction Control isn’t limited to iOS; iPad and Mac users running the fifth betas of iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia can similarly access the feature in Safari. iPhone 15 Pro users testing Apple Intelligence will have to wait for a future iOS 18.1 beta to enable the feature, as the 18.0 channel is currently one build ahead.

Beyond Distraction Control, iOS 18 beta 5 also retires the Carousel feature first added to the Photos app with beta 1. The change comes after many testers complained about the app becoming too bloated and complex to navigate intuitively. Otherwise, Apple has been polishing the OS, as its stable, public launch is only a month or so away.