Hidden iOS Safari Trick: Close Tabs Containing Text You Search For

Apple’s mobile Safari browser has a relatively unknown trick to let you only close tabs which contain a keyword you search for. This may come in handy if you’ve been researching a gift for a loved one and can’t remember which tabs you need to close.

The tip was recently shared on Twitter by user @mxswd, or Maxwell. All you need to do is launch Safari on an iOS device, tap the tabs icon, swipe down until you reach the very top (or tap the top status bar), which reveals the search bar, then type in the text you’re looking for. Once that’s done, tap and hold ‘Cancel’ and you’ll be prompted to close only the tabs matching your keyword.

Did you know in iOS Safari if you scroll to the top of the tabs, search for something then hold down on Cancel you get an option to close JUST the tabs you searched for! pic.twitter.com/3vBeXnTXA2

— Maxwell (@mxswd) February 17, 2019

You can also just tap and hold ‘Cancel’ to close all tabs as well.

Some other iOS Safari tricks you may or may not know about:

• Tap and hold on the tabs icon to quickly close all your open tabs (the total number may surprise you)
• Tap and hold on the “+” icon to see your recently closed tabs history
• Tap and hold the ‘reload’ icon in the browser bar to quickly ‘Request Desktop Site’

I had no idea search was even possible within tabs in Safari (I tend to use Google Chrome for iOS more). Let us know if you knew about this trick!