Today Apple released macOS Sequoia beta 5 for developers, the latest version of the upcoming OS update for the Mac. Alongside other performance improvements and bug fixes, the highlight of today’s release is a new feature for Safari users: Distraction Control.
New Distraction Control feature in Safari
Along with its companion release in the latest iOS and iPadOS 18 betas, Distraction Control is a Safari feature meant to create a more pleasant browsing experience.
Essentially, it functions as a sort of magic eraser for unwanted content. When you visit a site and there are sign-in popups and other content overlays you don’t want to see, you can simply click to hide them.
Click to hide—that’s the whole feature.
Distraction Control is entirely a manual tool. It won’t hide any content by default, but content that you choose to hide will stay hidden on page refreshes and reloads – as long as that content remains the same. For instance, if you choose to hide a login popup, that login popup will stay hidden each time you visit the page.
Apple clarifies that this feature is not intended to function as an ad blocker. Although users can use Distraction Control to temporarily hide an ad on a website, the ad will reappear when the page is refreshed or reloaded. Additionally, when Distraction Control is first activated, Safari will display a pop-up message emphasizing that the feature does not permanently remove ads or other frequently changing areas of a website.
The feature seems especially geared toward situations where overlays obstruct important content. Now, when those frustrating situations occur, you can quickly remove the obstruction and continue reading.
Beta release for macOS Sequoia 15.0 users only
Today’s beta 5 release is only available for developers who stick with the original macOS Sequoia beta cycle, 15.0. Apple now has multiple summer betas for developers: one for Sequoia 15.0, and another for 15.1.
If you have already moved on to the 15.1 beta with Apple Intelligence, you won’t see this latest update in System Settings. Instead, a separate 15.1 beta 2 will be arriving at some point in the future.
If your Mac is running the 15.0 beta, you should see beta 5 available for download within System Settings ⇾ General ⇾ Software Update.
Have you tried out Safari’s Distraction Control feature? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
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