How to Pin Tabs in iOS 16 Safari on iPhone

With the release of iOS 16, Apple brought the desktop-class Safari feature of pinned tabs to mobile screens. This article explains how tab pinning works on the iPhone, where pinned tabs are stored in the mobile interface, how they behave across browsing sessions, and the steps to pin and unpin your most frequently visited web pages.

How to Pin a Tab in Mobile Safari

You can pin any active webpage in Safari using one of two quick methods:

  1. From the Webpage: Long-press the URL/search bar at the bottom or top of the screen. In the contextual menu that appears, tap Pin Tab.
  2. From the Tab Switcher: Tap the Tabs icon (the two overlapping squares) in the bottom-right corner to open the tab overview grid. Long-press the preview card of the tab you want to pin, then tap Pin Tab from the pop-up menu.

Visual Placement and Interface Behavior

Unlike the desktop version of Safari, where pinned tabs shrink into small icons on the main tab bar, mobile screen constraints require a different visual design.

When you pin a tab in iOS 16 on an iPhone, the tab is removed from the standard scrollable grid and placed into a dedicated, fixed section at the very top of the Tab Overview screen. Pinned tabs appear as full-width or side-by-side miniature preview blocks that stay anchored directly beneath the search bar. This positioning ensures that your priority pages remain immediately accessible without cluttering your regular tab deck.

Key Functional Rules of Pinned Tabs

  • Immunity to Bulk Closing: Pinned tabs do not disappear when you select the "Close All [X] Tabs" option. They remain locked in place until you manually remove them.
  • Persistent Sessions: Pinned tabs retain their position even if Safari is closed or your device is restarted.
  • Tab Group Independence: Pinned tabs are context-specific. If you use Safari Tab Groups, the tabs you pin inside a specific group will stay pinned strictly within that group. The default, ungrouped tab view maintains its own separate set of pinned tabs.
  • External Link Behavior: Tapping a link within a pinned tab that leads outside the original domain will typically open the new link in a separate, regular tab to preserve the state of your pinned site.

How to Unpin or Remove a Tab

To remove a page from the pinned section:

  1. Open the Tab Overview screen.
  2. Long-press the pinned tab card at the top of the interface.
  3. Select Unpin Tab to return it to the regular tab grid, or select Close Tab to dismiss the webpage entirely. Alternatively, you can long-press the address bar while viewing the pinned page and tap Unpin Tab.