How to Use Private Browsing Mode in Safari on Your iPhone

A few days ago, we showed you how to enable private browsing mode in Safari for Mac. You can do the same in Safari on your iPhone. Here’s how.

When you’re browsing the web in Safari on your iPhone, the browser tracks information about your browsing habits. It keeps track of which websites you may visit, your web searches, and more.

However, Private Browsing Mode comes to the rescue! When in Private Browsing mode, Safari won’t remember your search or browsing history, no pages are cached, and AutoFill is forgotten.

How to Enable Private Browsing Mode in Safari on Your iPhone

Here’s how to turn on Private Browsing for your iPhone browsing session.

1. Launch Safari on your iPhone.
2. Tap on the “Tabs” icon in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.
3. Tap on the “Private” icon in the lower right-hand corner of the window. It will show as selected, with dark text on a white background.
4. Tap the “+” icon in the middle bottom of the screen.
5. A new window appears with a search field with a darker background, in place of the usual white one. This indicates you’re using a private browsing window.

Note: Only the new Private window, and any of the windows you spawn from that Private window will have Private Browsing enabled. Your original browsing window (the one with the light background in the search field) will still be tracked as per your privacy settings.

While Safari doesn’t track your moves online while in Private Browsing mode, and forgets everything as soon as the Private browsing window is closed, you shouldn’t feel like you’re invisible. Your ISP, and any government folks that may be monitoring your connection, can still see what you’re doing and track your activities. Use a VPN if you want to keep your Internet connection safer from monitoring.

For more tips and tricks on how to make better use of your Mac, iOS device, Apple Watch, or Apple TV, be sure to visit the “How To” section of our website.