How to hide Safari icon on Apple Devices

The main reason Apple users try to hide the Safari icon from their home screen is to prevent other people from trying to access the browser through their devices. 

This can be done on your iPad, iPad, and other iOS devices without any help from third-party apps. This article will help you hide the Safari 

Can I hide the Safari icon on Apple Devices?

Yes, you can hide the Safari app and even other applications to prevent unwanted access on Apple Inc devices like the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Mac. 

You can find the feature that will be used for hiding the Safari icon from your home screen, on your iPhone from iOS 8 till the latest versions of iOS. 

Hiding the Safari app on a Mac

It is not possible to remove Safari from your Mac as it is an Apple product, which is a built-in feature of every Apple device. 

Apple Inc has implemented an attribute known as System Integrity Protection (SIP) to help retain some important programs on the macOS. One such program is the Safari browser, which comes when you buy a Mac. 

It is not advisable to delete certain programs on your system as it can cause the OS to crash. 

However, it is not uncommon for Safari or any other embedded software to be deleted from your computer with the help of the Terminal console or a third-party app. 

You can also try to remove Safari from your Dock, by clicking it and dragging it onto the desktop, which would be sufficient if you are trying to keep it away from prying eyes. Clearing the cache data and using a different browser can help solve this issue. 

Hide Safari App from the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad Home Screen

Hiding Safari for iOS 11 and earlier

The User Interface is very similar to the iPhone, iPod, and iPad series running with iOS versions 8 to 11. You can hide the Safari browser on your Apple hand-held or you can disable Safari. Either way, you get to keep it out of the sight of those who you do not want using your browser.

These are your steps to hide the iPhone Safari browser for iOS 11 and earlier versions:

Step 1: Launch the Settings app from the home screen of your iPhone or iPad

The Utilities section on an iPhone home screen

Step 2: Touch the General option to open it

The General option in the iPhone settings

Step 3: Locate the Restrictions settings and open it.

Step 4: Your next step should be to setup Restrictions Passcode. If the Restrictions Passcode setup has been finished previously, ignore this step.

Step 5: Enter the correct Restrictions passcode to proceed. If you forgot the Restrictions Passcode, you should be able to recover it easily from a backup.

The Enter Passcode page to enter the restrictions passcode

Step 6: In the Allow section, touch the Safari toggle switch to enable restrictions for the Safari browser on your iPhone or iPad.

Once you have finished all these steps, you should not be able to see Safari on your home screen. You can unhide Safari on your home screens by following the above steps and turning the toggle switch near Safari on. 

Hiding Safari for iOS 12 and later

These are the steps to disable Safari on your Apple handset, your iPad mini, or other models with the more recent iOS versions:

Step 1: Open Apple Settings from your home screen.

Step 2: Touch the Screen Time option from the settings chart.

The Screen Time option in Apple Settings

Step 3: In the Screen Time page, Tap the Content and Privacy Restrictions sub-setting.

The Content & Privacy Restrictions option in the Screen Time Page

Step 4: Turn the Content and Privacy Restrictions toggle switch off. 

Content and Privacy Restrictions toggle switch

Step 5: Open Allowed Apps and switch off the toggle switch next to Safari.

hide safari icon - The Allowed Apps list, with the Safari toggle Switch