How to Open Links in the Background on an iPhone or iPad

This wikiHow teaches you to open new tabs in the background instead of moving your screen to the new tab while browsing with Safari. If you just want to open links in a new tab without any settings changes, skip to the third part.

Edit10 Second Summary

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Safari.
3. Tap Open Links.
4. Tap In Background.
5. Open Safari.
6. Tap and hold a link.
7. Tap Open in New Tab.

EditSteps

EditiPhone

1. Open your device's Settings. This is the grey icon with gears on your home screen.
   
2. Scroll down and tap . This is about half way down the page
   
3. Tap . This is in the General section of the menu.
   
4. Tap . Now links will load into new tabs in the background without interrupting the page that you are currently viewing.
   
   • The alternative option is In New Tab which will opt to open links in new tabs when available and redirect you directly to it. In some cases you will still need to open links in new tabs manually.^[1]

EditiPad

1. Open your device's Settings. This is the grey icon with gears on your home screen.
   
2. Scroll down and tap . This is about half way down the page
   
3. Slide to the On position. The button will turn green when turned on. Now your screen will remain focused on the tab you are currently viewing while loading new tabs in the background so you can move to them when you are ready.
   
   • This feature only works when opening new tabs. Tap and hold a link then tap Open in New Tab. In most cases, just tapping a link will redirect you from the current page in your current tab.

EditOpening a New Tab

1. Open Safari. This is the blue icon with a compass in the menu bar at the bottom of your screen.
   
2. Tap and hold a link. You can tap on links that you find in articles as well as images that are hyperlinked. A menu of options will appear at the bottom of the screen (on iPhone) or near the location of the link (on iPad).
   
3. Tap . This will manually open the link in a new tab. If you do not have background tabs enabled, you will be immediately taken to the new tab from whatever page you are currently viewing.
   
   • New tabs will appear listed to the right of your current tab.
   • Press the Tab View button in the upper right corner (looks like two overlapping squares) to see a list of all open tabs.

EditRelated wikiHows

• Remove Red Eye on iPhone, iPod, and iPad Photos
• Use Auto Enhance on iPhone, iPod, and iPad
• Save a Page to a Safari Reading List in iOS
• Access the Notification Center in iOS
• Remove Weather and Stocks from the iOS Notification Center
• Set up Twitter in iOS
• Access the iPhone Camera from the Lock Screen
• Browse Shared Links on Safari in iOS

EditSources and Citations

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