Apple is testing a new feature in Safari that allows iPhone, iPad and laptop users to hide pop-ups on websites. Experts aren’t calling it an ad blocker, but the feature sends a pointed message to advertisers to clean up their cluttered contributions to the user experience.

“The writing is on the wall for things that are annoying” to consumers online, said Vegard Johnsen, chief product officer of software company Eyeo, the parent of AdBlock.

Apple this week added the pop-up blocker, called Distraction Control, to the latest test version of iOS 18, which has not rolled out widely yet. Distraction Control works by giving users the option to erase some of the most disruptive elements of internet advertising—from banners promoting sign-up requests to windows asking users to select their cookie preferences to various forms of auto-play advertisements. On mobile devices, users simply click on the content to initiate its disintegration.

Importantly, the erasure is not considered ad blocking because it is temporary. As Dan Barbera of Mac Rumors demonstrated, the erased elements can reappear when a website refreshes, and devices do not remember which items were hidden.

Distraction Control is yet another move from Apple that has the potential to stymie common practices of marketers and negatively impact publishers. The tech giant has not been shy about implementing policies that present obstacles to internet advertising if it thinks they improve the customer experience. Apple was behind the anti-cookie movement, blocking those invasive trackers in Safari starting in 2017. It also has anti-tracking policies on iPhones that affect how advertisers target and measure campaigns.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

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A pop-up blocking feature was expected to be announced at Apple’s WWDC in June but, to the relief of advertisers, it was ultimately omitted. Now that the company is officially testing the program, it is a signal to the ad industry that it “isn’t providing the experience that users want,” Johnsen said.

Instead, users are clamoring for more control over their web experiences, and Apple is giving them that power, Johnsen said. While Distraction Control may seem relatively innocuous compared to a total ad-blocking measure, Apple could take more aggressive action against ads in the future, Johnsen said. To this end, the new feature is a nudge for advertisers to declutter web pages for users, rather than a decree.

Distraction Control is also a reminder to advertisers that Apple is not beholden to their business, unlike other tech giants that rely on advertising, according to Eric Schmitt, senior director analyst for Gartner’s marketing leaders practice.

Indeed, last month Google reversed course on deprecating cookies, in part because it would make advertisers’ and publishers’ lives harder. It is also cracking down on ad-blocking extensions in Chrome and on YouTube. 

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While Google is typically responsive to the ad industry—as it has to be because it holds immense sway over digital ad markets—Apple doesn’t mind being a thorn in the side of online publishers and advertisers. Distraction Control appears to be aimed at the worst of the worst pop-up formats and autoplaying content modules, which are rampant in programmatic, automated advertising. The feature resembles a “preemptive strike” against these disruptive advertising practices, Schmitt said.

Meanwhile, Apple is attempting to bolster its own ad business. Last month, it expanded a partnership with Taboola to place more ads in its News and Stocks apps. The company may also be gearing up to serve ads on Apple TV+, per a report from The Telegraph.

What advertisers can do

Assuming Distraction Control makes it out of beta testing and into the actual iOS 18 update, expected to launch next month, advertisers who buy pop-ups on Safari will need to respond accordingly.

Schmitt said advertisers could face a slew of tough considerations, and that could have knock-on effects for publishers. Advertisers should do an honest reassessment of how many users Safari-based pop-ups reach and the value of those elements, Schmitt said. Without cookies, Apple has already made it difficult for advertisers to track users across websites, which was the theme of its most recent ad campaign. Distraction Control actually hinders efforts by publishers to get permission to collect consumers’ data by giving users the ability to wipe away sign-up and consent boxes.

Publishers can try to mitigate the likelihood that users hide pop-ups by deploying smaller, less intrusive placements, Schmitt said. Also, advertisers could make more direct buys with publishers, Schmitt said, placing ads that are naturally embedded in the user experience, as opposed to buying through programmatic demand-side platforms (DSPs), which typically fill the lower-quality, pop-up ad inventory.

Optimists might see a perverse opportunity through Distraction Control: Since users have to click on ads to hide them, those ads could generate more attention, and thus provide more value. The data about what kinds of ads are more frequently clicked for deletion, and in what contexts, could lead to helpful insights, Schmitt said.

However, Johnsen reiterated that Distraction Control is about user control, and said that entities that continue to abuse pop-ups could turn off users. The right way forward, he said, consists of heeding Apple’s message and rethinking one’s contribution to user experience on the web.

Or, as Schmitt put it, “the juice may not be worth the squeeze” to go against Apple’s wishes.