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.
CONTENT BLOCKER / SAFARI · NO BLOCKED-REQUEST COUNTER
WARD / PROTECTION 01
RULES ON DEVICE
CONTROL IN YOUR HANDS
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
- Open Ward → Safari blocking for the current setup steps.
- In Settings, open Apps → Safari → Extensions → Ward on iOS 18 and later. Older iOS versions use Settings → Safari → Extensions.
- 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
- Open Safari and choose Safari → Settings → Extensions.
- Select Ward and enable its Content Blocker. For the optional Advanced extension, grant All Websites access only if you want its page-level features.
- 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 ↗