Understanding the Highlights Feature in Safari 18

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the Highlights feature introduced in version 18 of the Safari web browser. It explains the core mechanics of the tool and details how Safari automatically detects and surfaces actionable information—specifically directions, text summaries, and quick links—directly from the webpage you are viewing to streamline your browsing experience.

What is the Highlights Feature?

Highlights is an intelligent browsing tool in Safari 18 designed to help users quickly find key information on a webpage without having to scroll through clutter. Using on-device machine learning, Safari scans the contents of a site as it loads.

When Safari detects useful, actionable data, a small purple sparkle icon appears over the Page Menu icon on the left side of the address bar. Tapping or clicking this icon opens a compact overlay card that presents the extracted information in an easy-to-read format.

How Highlights Surfaces Directions

When you visit a webpage belonging to a brick-and-mortar business, restaurant, hotel, or landmark, Safari scans the text for physical addresses and contact details.

Instead of forcing you to scroll to the bottom of the page to find an address and manually copy it into a mapping app, Highlights automatically pulls the location data into an interactive card. This card features an embedded Apple Maps preview. From this menu, you can click to get instant routing directions, view the business’s operating hours, or initiate a phone call if a contact number is detected.

How Highlights Surfaces Summaries

For text-heavy webpages like news articles, blog posts, and long-form essays, Highlights acts as a rapid reading assistant. The browser analyzes the body text to determine the main points and generates a concise summary at the top of the Highlights menu. This allows you to preview the core message of an article before deciding to read the entire piece.

Additionally, if the webpage is about a specific book, movie, or television show, Highlights will surface a brief synopsis alongside critical reception data or release dates.

Highlights also cross-references subjects mentioned on a webpage—such as actors, musicians, songs, and television series—with Apple's broader ecosystem of apps and services. When it recognizes specific media or public figures, it generates context-aware quick links inside the overlay card.

  • Media Links: If a webpage discusses a specific album or song, Highlights provides a quick link to listen to it directly in Apple Music. If the page is about a movie or show, it offers a link to open the title in the Apple TV app or view it on IMDb.
  • Information Links: When a webpage focuses on a notable person, Highlights generates a biographical snippet and provides quick links to learn more about them through reliable informational databases.
  • Site-Specific Links: On certain complex websites, Highlights will extract essential internal links, such as a direct link to a restaurant's reservation page or a company's customer support portal.