How to Use Safari’s Reader Mode in iOS 7

Reading is one of the most popular activities to do on an iPad, especially with that Retina display. Text shows up sharp and crisp — almost like a real book. This makes any iOS device with a Retina display ideal for reading. But web browsing and reading articles in the Safari web browser can be a different story.

There’s some incredible content to be read on all sorts of websites. But advertisements can be distracting at times if you’re really wanting to dive into the content, yet they pay the bills, so they aren’t going away anytime soon. However, Safari on iOS 7 has a neat little feature called Reader Mode. Reader Mode can essentially take a web article and turns it into just a page with only the text and any photos and videos that accompany it. Here’s how to enable it.

Enabling Safari Reader Mode

The button to activate Reader Mode is sort of hidden in plain sight if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Follow these super-simple and quick steps to make it happen:

1. Open up the Safari app.
2. Go to a website with articles (preferably GottaBeMobile.com, because I hear they have some really great content).
3. Click on an article that you want to read.
4. A small button made up of multiple parallel lines should appear on the left side of the address bar and to the right of the Share button (pictured below). Click on it!

This will instantly turn the webpage into a distraction-free palette upon which your eyes can read in peace. Any photos that are included with the article with show up, as well as any videos that are embedded. Here’s a before and after of what Reader Mode looks like:

Before:

After:

There’s quite a big difference, and it’s the perfect feature if you’re wanting to read a long-form article of any kind. Sadly, Google Chrome doesn’t have this feature on iOS, so if you’re wanting to take advantage of Reader Mode you’ll have to do it in Safari.