Apple has released the fifth beta version of iOS 18. Beta 5 brings significant changes to Safari, including a new Distraction Control tool.

Distraction Control reduces annoying elements like content overlays and sign-in banners on articles and web pages.

While this tool allows you to hide static content on a page, it should be noted that Distraction Control is not an ad blocker and cannot permanently hide ads. It appears that ads such as newsletter banners and auto-playing videos can be temporarily hidden. However, the ads will return when you refresh the page. This is primarily for things that do not change on the page.

If you are in beta and would like to try Distraction Control, it is a bit tricky to get around.

You can find this tool by selecting 'Hide Distracting Items' under the Page menu. Next, select the area on the web page that you want to hide. You can also select static items that you do not want to see.

According to Apple, anything you did not actively select will not be hidden.

However, the settings are done on the device and will not sync if you move from one iPhone to another or from an iPhone to an iPad. It must be done manually on each device.

You need to do this for each website you visit. Therefore, it may or may not be useful in practice.

Distraction Control can be found in Apple's operating system developer betas, including iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.

Distraction Control is just one of the new features added in the fifth beta. Other options include backtracking changes to the Photos app, which iOS users were not pleased with.