On larger iPad displays, Apple designed the Safari web browser to resemble its desktop counterpart on the Mac. One of these design elements is the Sidebar, a permanent column on the left side of the screen that houses your bookmarks, reading list, and Tab Groups. While the sidebar is excellent for intense research sessions, it consumes a significant portion of your screen real estate. When you are casually reading an article or watching a video, you likely want the webpage to stretch across the entire width of your iPad. Fortunately, you can easily collapse and hide this sidebar.
How to Hide the Safari Sidebar
The control for the sidebar is built directly into the Safari interface; you do not need to dig into the iPad’s main Settings app.
- Open the Safari browser on your iPad.
- Look at the top-left corner of the screen, just to the left of the address/search bar.
- You will see an icon that looks like a small square divided by a vertical line down the left side (this is the Sidebar icon).
- Tap the Sidebar icon once.
The sidebar will instantly slide away to the left, and the current webpage will expand to fill the newly available space.
How to Bring the Sidebar Back
If you need to access a bookmark or switch to a different Tab Group later, retrieving the sidebar is just as simple.
- Look again at the top-left corner of the Safari window.
- The Sidebar icon remains in the same position, even when the sidebar is hidden.
- Tap the Sidebar icon again.
The sidebar will slide back onto the screen. This toggle mechanism allows you to rapidly switch between a focused, full-screen reading experience and a multi-tasking research mode with just a single tap.