How to Open Multiple Safari Windows on iPad
Reading Time: 4 minutes You may already know that you can use Safari, and many other apps, in Split Screen (Apple calls it Split View) on iPad. As an iPad Safari user, you also surely know about opening new tabs in the same Safari window. However, if you are like me, you may like to have many things open at once, but hate the clutter. Fortunately, for Safari on iPad, you can actually just open up a completely new Safari window – no need to use split screen or anything like that.
In this article, we will explain how to open another Safari window on iPad, and then we’ll also throw in some information on the other window/tab options available for Safari on iPad – such as Split View, opening new tabs, and viewing all open tabs and windows.
How to Open an Additional Safari Window on iPad
First, let’s take a look at the menu that pops up when you press (tap and hold briefly) the Safari icon. If you don’t have any Safari windows open currently, you see the following:
So, from here you can see that you can open or show:
- New Tab – Tapping on this will just open a Safari window.
- New Private Tab – Tapping on this will open a Private window.
- Show Bookmarks – Pretty much just opens a Safari window.
- Show Reading List – Also, just opens a Safari window.
The other menu options are the standard Edit Home Screen and Remove App that you will find when you press on any iPad app icon. Now, except for New Private Tab, most of these are not particularly interesting or useful if you don’t already have a Safari window open – you could just tap on the icon to open a new window. Let’s see what happens when we have previously opened a Safari window, and we press on the Safari icon:
So, the main difference you can see is that there is a new option, Show All Windows. However, now that you have a Safari window open, some of the options have a different effect, so we’ll go through all of them:
- New Tab – Tapping on this will open a new tab in your previously opened Safari window.
- New Private Tab – Tapping on this will open a Private window – unless you had previously opened a private window, in which case this just opens a new tab in that window.
- Show Bookmarks – Opens your Bookmarks on the left side of your Safari window.
- Show Reading List – Opens your Reading List on the left side of your Safari window.
- Show All Windows – This is the one that will allow you to open a new Safari window; I don’t know why there isn’t an option called “Open New Window” – but there isn’t.
Opening the New Safari Window
Now, from start to finish, here’s how to open a new Safari window when you already have one open.
- Assuming you have previously opened a Safari window. If necessary, swipe that Safari window out of your way so that you can see your Safari app icon. Press on the icon.
- In the menu that appears, tap on Show All Windows.
- You will see all of your open Safari windows. From this screen you can:
- Swipe up to close a window.
- Tap on a window to open it.
- Tap on Reopen Closed Window to open up the last Safari window you closed.
- Open a new window – tap on the little plus sign inside a circle that you see in the upper-right corner of your screen.
Split View and Other Multi-Window iPad Tricks
Split View
You can view multiple windows (Safari and others) at the same time on your iPad using Split View. We have previously written a couple of articles covering Split View:
Other Tab and Window Options
For other options concerning tabs and windows in Safari, you may want to check out the options in the windows button menu:
If you press (not just tap) this button, you will see more tab options, and an option to open a new window in Split View. You can also merge all of your open windows – all pages will become tabs in a single Safari window.
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