Firefox Focus

Free

Requirements IOS 11.0 or later • 23.1MB Available from Learn more App Store mozilla.org

As much As We love safari, we know that it isn’t the most secure of web browsers, and if you want to delete your search history, prevent ad tracking and browse privately we have to dip in and tweak the settings. Mozilla’s latest Firefox incarnation does all of this by default, so you can just dive straight in and surf.

If you tend to get creeped out by targeted ads or you just want to research something private without having to cycle through various menus to delete your history then Firefox Focus is reassuringly secure and simple in its execution. The first time you use it, FF will even ask permission to send what you type in the URL/ Search bar to the search engine. This is set to Google, but you can go to Settings>search Engine to change this to a different one, such as the non-tracking Duckduckgo engine. Also in Settings, you’ll see that the majority of the trackers are blocked, with the option of blocking ‘other content trackers’ too. Enabling this may affect the way certain web pages behave and affect video playback, but it’s good to know that it’s there for total security.

This app also lets you assign Siri Shortcuts to verbally cover your tracks and, by tapping the shield icon in the top-left corner of the interface, you can see exactly which trackers are blocked per site. When visiting sites, you can delete the current site from the browser and remove its history simply by tapping the trash icon to the side of the Url/search bar – it’s instantaneous. Also, if you are browsing less-sensitive sites and want to switch to Safari then, as long as the option is enabled in Settings, you can tap the

‘…’ icon and choose ‘Open in Safari’. It’s ace!