WARD

01 / Safari · On-device filtering

A quieter
Safari.

Ward gives Safari a set of rules for blocking known ad and tracking requests. Safari applies those rules on your device—without sending Ward your browsing history.

Enable in Safari Try the manual check

CONTENT BLOCKER / SAFARI · NO BLOCKED-REQUEST COUNTER

What each layer actually does / 01—03

Three layers.
Different boundaries.

Start with Safari's Content Blocker. The other layers are separate choices, not prerequisites.

01 SAFARI / CORE

Content Blocker

Safari applies Ward's declarative filtering rules locally to supported page requests. Turn it on in Safari's extension settings, then check the extension and installed rule-pack status in Ward.

Safari does not tell Ward how many requests it blocked. A reported enabled state is not a per-page count.

SET UP
02 SAFARI / OPTIONAL

Advanced extension

For page-level scriptlets and cosmetic cleanup inside Safari. It needs a separate Ward toggle and Safari permission; only grant All Websites access if you choose this layer.

Its reported system status is available on supported OS versions.

SET UP
03 NETWORK / CONDITIONAL

Ward All

Apple's system URL filter may cover eligible requests in supported apps on iOS/iPadOS 26+ or macOS 26+. It requires Apple's URL-filter entitlement and a reachable PIR service.

It is fail-open and cannot remove ads served from the same first-party domain. Safari blocking works without it.

DETAILS

Get it running / 02

Start in Safari.

The operating system owns the switch. Ward can tell you what Safari reports after you enable it.

IPHONE / IPADSafari first

Turn on the Content Blocker

  1. Open Ward → Safari blocking for the current setup steps.
  2. In Settings, open Apps → Safari → Extensions → Ward on iOS 18 and later. Older iOS versions use Settings → Safari → Extensions.
  3. Enable Content Blocker, return to Ward, and use Protection check to verify status. Reload Safari tabs you already had open.
MACSafari first

Turn on Ward in Safari

  1. Open Safari and choose Safari → Settings → Extensions.
  2. Select Ward and enable its Content Blocker. For the optional Advanced extension, grant All Websites access only if you want its page-level features.
  3. Return to Ward and open Protection check. Reload Safari tabs you already had open.
Ward All is not a Safari prerequisite. Its status depends on Apple's URL-filter entitlement and a reachable PIR service. If either is unavailable, Ward reports the failure; Safari's Content Blocker remains independent.

Verify, don't assume / 03

Read the status.
Then check a URL.

Ward reports Safari's extension state and installed rules. Safari does not expose a blocked-request count to Ward.

Manual Safari check

One URL. One useful signal.

On the test page, a button starts a same-origin control and a known ad-script request. A failed script load can also have network causes—it is not proof of Ward blocking.

Open the test page