How to disable webpage previews in Safari for iPhone and see the destination link URL instead

Safari link previews

iOS 13 and iPadOS have changed how Safari indicates where a link will take you. Here’s how to see where a webpage URL will take you on your iPhone and iPad with iOS 13 and iPadOS.

In iOS 12 and older, you would simply tap and hold a hyperlink for a couple of seconds until an action sheet appeared with the destination URL displayed at the top. In iOS 13 and iPadOS, the action sheet defaults to displaying an actual live preview of the destination URL.

Safari link previews
iOS 13 defaults to showing link previews in Safari.

To revert that behavior, you must disable link previews in Safari. Just don’t visit Settings → Safari because Apple has made this toggle available right from the action sheet.

Follow along with us as we show you how to disable webpage previews in Safari so that you can see the destination URL where the link will take you without opening the page.

How to view link URLs in Safari for iPhone

Follow the step-by-step instructions included right ahead to disable webpage previews in Safari for iOS so that you can see the destination URL the link will take you to.

1) Open Safari on your iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 13+ or on your iPad with iPadOS.

2) Now visit a webpage with hyperlinks like the iDownloadBlog homepage.

3) Next, tap and hold on a hyperlink for a couple of seconds until the action sheet appears.

By default, the action sheet displays a preview of the selected link without opening the page. You can open the link by tapping the preview window or hit anywhere outside this area to close the preview window and stay on the current page.

4) What we want to do is permanently disable link previews. To do so, simply choose the option Hide Link Previews from the bottom of the action sheet.

And that’s all there’s to it, really.

hide link previews
Turn URL previews on/off in the action sheet.

The next time you preview a page by tapping and holding its URL in Safari, the action sheet will display the full destination URL where the link will take you, not the page preview.

show link previews
Disabling link previews lets you see the destination URL.

To revert to seeing link previews instead of destination URLs, tap and hold a link in Safari and choose the option Show Link Previews from the bottom of the action sheet.

show safari link previews
You can reenable link previews at any time.

Knowing where a link will take you is important from a security and privacy standpoint, especially if you take into account sophisticated phishing scams.

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