How to Create and Manage Multiple Browsing Profiles in Safari on iPhone

Using a single mobile browser for both professional duties and personal leisure often leads to cluttered bookmarks, tangled browsing histories, and accidental account cross-contamination. Starting in iOS 17, Apple introduced Safari Profiles to iPhone and iPad. Profiles allow you to establish distinct browsing environments—such as “Work”, “Personal”, “School”, or “Research”—each with completely isolated cookies, browsing history, website data, favourite bookmarks, and tab groups.

Why Safari Profiles are Superior to Private Browsing

While Private Browsing discards cookies the moment a session ends, Safari Profiles maintain permanent, isolated sessions. This means you can stay logged into your company Google Workspace in your “Work” profile while remaining logged into your personal Gmail in your “Personal” profile, switching between them seamlessly without logging in and out repeatedly.

How to Create a New Profile in Safari Settings

Setting up your first custom profile takes only a moment:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone running iOS 17 or later.
2. Scroll down and tap Safari.
3. Scroll down to the Profiles section and tap New Profile.
4. Enter a descriptive name (such as Work, Study, or Shopping).
5. Choose an identifying symbol icon (like a briefcase, book, or shopping bag) and select a distinct accent colour.
6. Select your preferred default favourites bookmark folder for this profile.
7. Tap Done in the top-right corner to activate the profile.

Switching Between Profiles While Browsing

Transitioning between your created profiles inside Safari is fluid:

1. Launch the Safari app on your iPhone.
2. Tap the Tabs icon (the two overlapping squares in the bottom-right corner).
3. Tap the middle profile/folder button at the bottom of the tab view.
4. Tap Profile.
5. Select your desired profile (e.g., switch from Personal to Work).
6. Safari changes themes to match your chosen profile colour and immediately displays only the tabs, favourites, and history belonging to that profile.

Managing Extensions and Web History per Profile

Safari gives you granular control over profile privacy:

• Extensions: In Settings > Safari > Profiles > [Profile Name] > Extensions, you can choose which browser extensions (such as ad blockers or password managers) are active in specific profiles.
• Clearing Data: When clearing history in Safari, you can choose to purge history exclusively for one individual profile while preserving the browsing records of your other profiles.