macOS Sequoia developer beta 5 now available with Safari Distraction Control

Today Apple released macOS Sequoia beta 5 for developers, the latest version of the upcoming OS update for the Mac. Alongside other performance improvements and bug fixes, the highlight of today’s release is a new feature for Safari users: Distraction Control.

New Distraction Control feature in Safari

Along with its companion release in the latest iOS and iPadOS 18 betas, Distraction Control is a Safari feature meant to create a more pleasant browsing experience.

Essentially, it functions as a sort of magic eraser for unwanted content. When you visit a site and there are overlays or ads you don’t want to see, you can simply click to hide them.

Click to hide—that’s the whole feature.

Distraction Control is entirely a manual tool. It won’t hide ads or overlays by default, nor will hidden content stay hidden on future visits. Instead, you’ll have to manually hide items on every visit or whenever there’s a page refresh.

The feature seems especially geared toward situations where overlays obstruct important content. Now, when those frustrating situations occur, you can quickly remove the obstruction and continue reading.

Beta release for macOS Sequoia 15.0 users only

Today’s beta 5 release is only available for developers who stick with the original macOS Sequoia beta cycle, 15.0. Apple now has multiple summer betas for developers: one for Sequoia 15.0, and another for 15.1.

If you have already moved on to the 15.1 beta with Apple Intelligence, you won’t see this latest update in System Settings. Instead, a separate 15.1 beta 2 will be arriving at some point in the future.

If your Mac is running the 15.0 beta, you should see beta 5 available for download within System Settings ⇾ General ⇾ Software Update.

Have you tried out Safari’s Distraction Control feature? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.