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.
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.
Popular Stories
Game emulator apps have come and gone since Apple announced App Store support for them on April 5, but now popular game emulator Delta from developer Riley Testut is available for download. Testut is known as the developer behind GBA4iOS, an open-source emulator that was available for a brief time more than a decade ago. GBA4iOS led to Delta, an emulator that has been available outside of...
Last September, Apple's iPhone 15 Pro models debuted with a new customizable Action button, offering faster access to a handful of functions, as well as the ability to assign Shortcuts. Apple is poised to include the feature on all upcoming iPhone 16 models, so we asked iPhone 15 Pro users what their experience has been with the additional button so far. The Action button replaces the switch ...
The lead developer of the multi-emulator app Provenance has told iMore that his team is working towards releasing the app on the App Store, but he did not provide a timeframe. Provenance is a frontend for many existing emulators, and it would allow iPhone and Apple TV users to emulate games released for a wide variety of classic game consoles, including the original PlayStation, GameCube, Wii,...
A decade ago, developer Riley Testut released the GBA4iOS emulator for iOS, and since it was against the rules at the time, Apple put a stop to downloads. Emulators have been a violation of the App Store rules for years, but that changed on April 5 when Apple suddenly reversed course and said that it was allowing retro game emulators on the App Store. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel ...
The first approved Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) emulator for the iPhone and iPad was made available on the App Store today following Apple's rule change. The emulator is called Bimmy, and it was developed by Tom Salvo. On the App Store, Bimmy is described as a tool for testing and playing public domain/"homebrew" games created for the NES, but the app allows you to load ROMs for any...
Top Rated Comments
Banish now joins Vinegar, 1Blocker and Noir in my arsenal of ‘make the web great again’ apps. Thanks Alex!
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…