This Safari Extension Can Block Unwanted Content on Any Website

I try to avoid opening news websites as much as possible these days. One can only read so many articles about crime, war, and all of the many other injustices in this world, and I've often wished I could filter out the news I don't want to know about. I've done this, to a large extent, on social media platforms, some of which allow you to block posts containing certain keywords, while doing so on others requires a browser extension.

However, the problem persists on the broader web: I can't open any big-name news website without seeing repeated mentions of the poor decisions of billionaires and politicians or the tragic effects of climate change, and I've been looking for a way to give myself a bit of a buffer against the onslaught of despair. I finally found an effective method when I started using Filtre, a recently launched Safari extension that allows you to hide pages containing keywords you'd rather avoid. The concept is simple—create your list of keywords, and the extension will handle the rest. It works quite well for the most part, and I recommend trying it out—your mental health will thank you.

How to set up Filtre on all your Apple devices

Credit: Pranay Parab

Filtre works on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and a single purchase unlocks the extension's features across all three platforms. You can get started with the week-long free trial, after which the app costs $1.50/month, $9/year, or a one-time purchase fee of $28. Once you've made that decision, it's easy to set up. You fire up the app, give Filtre permission to access websites, and start adding keywords you want to block. Extensions like these aren't very useful if they don't sync filters across devices, and I'm glad to see that Filtre ships with iCloud sync compatibility. In my testing, it was able to instantly sync filters between my Mac and iPhone.

Use this extension to filter out noise or avoid spoilers

There are many ways to use an extension like Filtre, but I've mostly been using it to limit political news. It's easy to set up a few keywords that block out names of politicians, and the extension lets you choose how you wish to obscure those headlines. The default option will hide all mentions of your chosen keywords, but you can also choose "Fade" or "Greyscale." Fade keeps headlines intact but blocks your keywords in place, and reduces the headlines' opacity to make them easier to skim past. Grayscale converts any part of the webpage that includes your keywords into black-and-white. You can adjust these options under the Default Settings tab in the Filtre app (which will appear in the app drawer on your iPhone/iPad or be searchable via Finder on a Mac).

Credit: Pranay Parab

Set different customizations

While universal filters are the default, you can also create different sets of filters for different websites. For instance, if you visit a website that covers movies or video games, you could create a filter set to hide spoilers from Christopher Nolan's Odyssey or Grand Theft Auto 6 on those sites only.

In Filtre's Website Settings tab, you'll be able to set up different filters for each site you frequent, or choose to disable some filter sets on certain sites. The extension allows you to export filter sets easily, which is convenient when you want to share your blocklists with others, and also for those who want to avoid using iCloud sync. You can send a filter list via AirDrop and load it on another of your devices.

I did notice a few minor limitations while using the extension. For example, I've deleted Instagram's app from my devices, so when I need to access the site, I open it in Safari. Filtre didn't seem to have any impact on my Instagram feed at all. Since most social media sites allow you to mute keywords already, this limitation didn't bother me much. (On the plus side, Filtre does work with Reddit, though it started hiding my entire feed when I switched to Old Reddit.)

Filtre passes the privacy check

My biggest concern with browser extensions is how much data they can access. For Filtre to be effective across the web, you'll need to give it permission to access every website you visit, which might sound quite invasive. However, the developer Jeffrey Kuiken has explicitly stated that the app doesn't collect any of your data, and it even stores all your filters only locally and in the linked iCloud account. The same developer also made Noir, an extension that enables dark mode for every website you visit in Safari, and has earned the community's trust via a transparent business model and regular updates.