How to Enable Automatic Reader View in Safari for iOS - MacRumors
Skip to Content

How to Enable Automatic Reader View in Safari for iOS

by

Safari for iOS has a nifty built-in "Reader" feature that's designed to allow Safari users to read online articles with a distraction-free design that tucks away ads and other visual clutter on supported sites.


You can tap the Reader icon whenever you're reading through an article to activate this mode, but there's also a way to turn it on for all articles on a specific website or all supported articles on the web.

  1. Open up Safari.
  2. Navigate to a favorite website like MacRumors.com.
  3. Click on an article.
  4. In the navigation bar at the top, where it says "Reader View Available," tap and hold on the icon that looks like three lines.

From here, you'll see a pop that says "Automatic Reader View," with options to either enable Automatic Reader View on the website you're currently visiting or on all websites.

With this feature enabled, all articles that you click on for a specific website (or all websites if you chose that option) will be displayed in Reader View by default.

You can also use Reader View on the Mac too, and your Automatic Reader preferences for Mac can be accessed by going to Preferences in the Safari Mac app and choosing "Reader" under general. You can also turn Reader on for all articles on a particular webpage by right clicking or clicking and holding on the Reader icon while visiting a website.

Top Rated Comments

itsmilo Avatar
110 months ago
I had no idea about all those long press features in Safari. This and 3D Touch are far beyond intuitive
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
John.B Avatar
110 months ago
I turned this on once in Safari on one of my Macs for a website that (a) doesn’t have reader view enabled on their home page but (b) does on all of their linked articles, and, try as I might, I’ve never been able to get it turned back off on my iPhone. I’ve disabled reader view in Safari on my iMac, my Mac mini, and MBP and they all work normally now (as does my iPad) but every article on my iPhone continued to open in reader view and I had to turn it off each time to see the normal page. What I needed was a way to disable automatic reader view in iOS.

Long story short, long-pressing reader view on one of the afflicted webpages finally let me turn it off. You learn something new every day. Props to Juli and the MR crew!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iPhone 18 Pro Rumored Colors

What's Coming in September: New iPhones, Apple Watches and More

Thursday August 13, 2026 4:20 pm PDT by
Apple will introduce at least five new devices at its iPhone-centric event next month, and it's also possible we'll get devices waiting on Siri AI like the Apple TV. iPhone 18 Pro The iPhone 18 Pro is going to look like the iPhone 17 Pro, but with a smaller Dynamic Island. It's getting some internal updates, including a new Wide camera with a variable aperture for more control over lighting ...
Everything New Your iPhone Can Do on iOS 27 Feature 1

30 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 27

Friday August 14, 2026 6:24 am PDT by
Apple will release iOS 27 in September, and despite the company's focus this year on refining its flagship operating system and nixing bugs, there are still many additional features on the way, not least of which is Apple's new context-aware Siri, re-tooled for the generative AI era. This year's major iPhone software update isn't all about AI, though, as the following feature list...
iPhone 17 One Year Later Thumb 1

Should You Buy an iPhone 17 Now or Wait for iPhone 18?

Friday August 14, 2026 12:15 pm PDT by
For the first time since Apple started selling standard and "Pro" iPhones, we're not going to get an entry-level iPhone model this fall. Apple doesn't plan to release an iPhone 18 in September, and will only launch the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and foldable iPhone Ultra. The lower-cost iPhone 18 won't come out until spring 2027. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...