New iOS App Blocks Those Annoying 'Open in App' Pop-Ups in Safari

You've probably experienced visiting a website like Reddit or LinkedIn on your iPhone only to be greeted with an annoying, almost full-screen pop-up urging you to view the content in their app instead of on the website.

banish safari app pop ups
It's a common practice for websites that have accompanying iOS apps to push users to open (if they already have the app installed) or download their app from the App Store to view the content they're trying to view. It can be very annoying for end-users, though, as these pop-ups are usually rather intrusive to the actual content, creating a subpar experience.

Thankfully, there is a new way to block these pop-ups within Safari on ‌iPhone‌ and iPad. Developer Alex Zamoshchin has created a new Safari extension called "Banish" (via Daring Fireball) that can run on iOS and iPadOS and is designed to specifically get rid of those pop-ups. The app, which costs $2, helps eliminate a majority of those pop-ups in popular web versions of apps, but it doesn’t get rid of similar banners that show up at the top of Safari to recommend opening the current page in an installed app.

The banner at the top of Safari is built into Safari and WebKit itself, so to get rid of those, you'll have to uninstall the respective app from your device. Banish, instead, gets rid of pop-ups implemented in the websites themselves.

To use Banish, download it from the App Store and follow the on-screen instructions to give the app the needed permission within Settings, Safari, and Extensions. You can learn more about Banish here.

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Top Rated Comments

Moonjumper Avatar
36 months ago
Notice to website developers using this feature: If I was to move use to your app, it would likely be placed on the 8th home page of oblivion, never to be used again. Just let me use your website as a website.
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
contacos Avatar
36 months ago
What? No subscription?! Great, instant buy
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kk200 Avatar
36 months ago
Apple needs to forbid splash ad screens in app. There are more and more apps show these annoying ad splash screens on startup, switch or even return from control center.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
contacos Avatar
36 months ago

Apple needs to forbid splash ad screens in app. There are more and more apps show these annoying ad splash screens on startup, switch or even return from control center.
The worst are those game ads, which trick you into tapping the „x“ and still automatically redirect you to the App Store. Even on android, you get a pop up asking, if you really want to get to the store or continue what u r doing
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
scrm Avatar
36 months ago
I’ve had this app since reading about it on DF. It works great and the developer is very responsive too -- got an immediate response from him when I mailed him a site that didn’t block the pop-up (Substack.com).

Banish now joins Vinegar, 1Blocker and Noir in my arsenal of ‘make the web great again’ apps. Thanks Alex!
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
1557750 Avatar
36 months ago
I’ll support this dev for $2

I’m sure it won’t be long till Apple brainwashes him into adding a subscription option by sending him some hypnotizing/subliminal email. But, what the hay…
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)