How Do I Make Safari on iPhone ALWAYS open a new tab to a specific page?

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How Do I Make Safari on iPhone ALWAYS open a new tab to a specific page?

I ALWAYS had google search as my home page, a new tab would always open to that. It was doing it all day yesterday like normal.

Now today, with no update, no restart, suddenly this morning it opens to "Favorites" which I NEVER use and could care less about.

There seems to now be no way to create a set start page, or make your new tabs to open to a set page.

How can this be possible???

I'm on an iPhone 17 Pro Max running iOS 26.2 and this is driving me crazy !!!!!

Any help is appreciated. LOL

iPhone 17 Pro Max

Posted on Jan 18, 2026 10:26 AM

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Answer 1

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Phil0124

Community+ 2026

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225,798 points

Jan 18, 2026 12:40 PM in response to EdgemontFarm

Safari on an iPhone has never had a definable start page. It's always been set to the Favorites and Recents.

If you have the Search Engine set to google in Settings ➜ Apps ➜ Safari ➜ Search Engine you can simply type in the address bar and it will search on Google.com for whatever you type.

Alternatively, you can create a shortcut to Google.com by opening Google.com in Safari, tapping the share icon, and then tapping on "Add to Home Screen". This will save a shortcut to the Home Screen that will open Safari to Google.com always.

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Answer 2

EdgemontFarm Author

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61 points

Jan 19, 2026 8:57 AM in response to Phil0124

Thanks so much for your kind reply. I think what I must have been doing is had it opening to Favorites but they were tiny folders I could ignore and just typed into the address bar and it appeared in google search as you stated.

Suddenly there were giant Favorites folders and I couldn't figure out what had changed - LOL!!!

Now I'm back to normal....

Still wonder why they don't let us just have a Home Page like we do on the Mac... it just seems simpler.

Anyway THANK YOU!!!!

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How Do I Make Safari on iPhone ALWAYS open a new tab to a specific page?

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