iOS 13: Touchscreen opens links on web pages at the slightest touch

Hi swf627 and everyone,

I think this feature is a new feature in iOS 13 called 'Link Preview'. This feature helps in opening a link with a quick long touch to preview it and you can decide if you want to visit it or not. But it turns out that this feature is not helpful for everyone, so Apple has included an option of 'Hide Link Previews'.

So so this is the way to do it on iPhone and iPad,

For iPhone 📱

Search for something on Safari and open an image in Google images or open any web site with a link that directs you to another link.

Hold the link and let the preview pop up.

In the preview options, choose the last option that is 'Hide Previews'. That will turn the pop up into a link and it will do so for every other link.

Unfortunately, there is no setting yet in iOS 13.3 that can completely disable the link preview or change sensitivity of the touch, but we may see it it future updates.

For iPad

Search for something on safari and open an image on Google images or a link on a website that directs you to another link.

Now hold the link to open the preview

Now click the 'Hide Preview' button of the top right corner of the preview which will turn it into a link and the previews will be hidden for all the other links as well.

How to undo it?

Since this is not a permanent hiding feature, it can easily be undoable.

To undo it on iPhone 📱, the option of 'Show Preview' will be in the same position of the 'Hide Preview' button. So click on it and there you go! Now you can view previews for each link you wish to do so.

To undo it on iPad, the option of 'Tap to show preview' will be displayed on the top left corner of the preview.

And that is how you can Disable and Enable previews in iOS 13 iPhone and iPad.

Always ready to help,

Arnav

Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities, swf627!

I understand your display has become sensitive and opens links up when you don't intend to. I'd be happy to provide information to help you troubleshoot this.

Use the steps in the following articles to adjust touch settings:

Get help with the display on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Use Touch Accommodations with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

Enjoy your day!

It's not being "flooded with this complaint" because this is not a forum for complaints, it's for tech support from users like yourself. Apple is not here and they don't read these boards. If you have a complaint, you need to submit feedback here: https://www.apple.com/feedback/.

This is driving me batty (iPhone 7 Plus). I can’t scroll a webpage without the open link/save image menu popping open. Touch Accommodations as recommended above are too restrictive; I shouldn’t need to hold to scroll.

These sub menus should only open on 3D Touch imo.

Same here. impossible to scroll many apps without being linked out to other pages. I noticed this after the ios 13 upgrade on my iphone 7. thought it wuld be fixed with 13.1 release, but nothing.

Now, i have bought iphone 11 pro, exact same thing.

Funny, it doesnt happen everywhere. noticed it never happens when scrolling Apple Support pages, but literally can read an artcle jn USAToday app with the url links being activated any time you scroll the page.

Me too! I’m not sure how this thread is not being flooded with this complaint. It is absolutely unbearable when EVERY time you’re reading an article, a simple scroll down leads across multiple links. Please fix this beyond the unworkable solution that requires sacrifice the ease of use for all other touch capabilities. I hate when the only solution provides by Apple is to sacrifice other features! That’s a lazy shortcut not a client friendly solution!

I agree. It is a horrible experience on the iPhone. I have latest Iphone 11 pro max. I’m trying to get used to scroll with my finger at the far right portion of the screen, which helps.

This is my #1 annoyance with IOS 13.

I just posted in this thread my annoyance with this issue, but now that you mention the CNN app, I think you are right. I just checked Apple News app and when scrolling and my figure is touching a link, the screen does not jump to the link. So it must be the CNN app itself.

OMG yes!! It took me 3 days to find this thread after searching on Google. It makes reading news apps (CNN, FOX) impossible. I will trigger 5-6 to open on EVERY article I read. There must be a better way. Bring back “deep” touch as an option? Apple, you can keep your Haptic Touch if this is what it means. How could this role out the door and not be caught during testing?

I am having exactly the same issue. I have an iPhone 7 Plus and recently upgraded to 13. Now all my news apps have become so sensitive with their embedded hyperlinks that I basically cannot use them.

Help would be great

Thank you for reporting this! It’s probably the most annoying bug of any recent update. I find it is impossible to read a news article in my news apps without clicking the back button a hundred times. APPLE - PLEASE FIX THIS. Changing touchscreen settings does not fix the problem and actually makes things worse in the opposite way. It’s not us; it’s you.

I too have this problem, and it happens on many apps. I do not believe that it is an app problem, I believe it is a systemic IOS13 issue. I also believe it is not that the screen is more sensitive, it is that in prior IOS versions the software waited until you lifted your finger (without moving your finger up or down) to open a link, signalling that you truly wanted to open the link instead of scroll. If the software sensed that you moved your finger up and down, even when you took your finger off the link it did not open it. This is a major IOS13 bug. I have written to apple about this.