New Distraction Control feature explained

With one touch of a button, you may never have to do battle with a pop-up window again.

Make that many touches of a button.

New iOS and MacOS updates will empower Apple users to vanquish unwanted pop-ups and other unsightly intrusions while using Safari — one site at a time, MacRumors reported.

The forthcoming feature of MacOS Sequoia and iOS 18, called “Distraction Control,” can be enabled to remove cumbersome panels that interrupt a user’s swipe time, such as prompts to sign-up for newsletters, sign-in windows and more, the site reports.

Said to be currently available in the beta version of the updates, Distraction Control will have to be enabled each time you land on a new page, according to Gizmodo.

The feature can be toggled on by selecting the page icon next to the URL bar in Safari and clicking “Hide Distracting Items.”

When activated, an animation will play as if the unwanted junk is being vaporized on the screen, according to a video posted by MacRumors.

The feature is reportedly not meant to be a permanent ad blocker, though it does block ads in the process of cleaning up the user’s experience.

With Distraction Control, when a page is refreshed or a link is followed and the user returns, the process of elimination begins again.

According to MacRumors, the settings do not transfer to other devices, so users will have to enable the feature on each piece of tech.

Additionally, users can also select “Show Hidden Items” to restore the pop-ups, ads and other miscellaneous media that were hidden.

The official release of iOS 18 — anticipated to arrive in the next few months — has been hailed as Apple’s biggest yet.

Some critics, however, have raised concerns about some features, like the ability to lock and hide certain apps on iPhone home screens.

This would reportedly make it much easier for people to cheat on their partners using dating or hookup apps — that can now effectively be invisible to anyone but the user.