Before clicking on an unknown link, it is a good safety practice to preview the full URL Address of the link. You will find below the steps to Preview Link before clicking on iPhone and Mac.
Preview Link Before Clicking on iPhone and Mac
Most popular web browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge and others display a URL Status bar, when you hoover mouse over links.
However, Apple’s Safari browser on Mac does not enable URL Status bar by default and it needs to be manually enabled by the user.
In case of iPhone or iPad, the Safari browser does not provide the option to show URL Status bar, but it is still possible to preview the complete URL Address of Links on iPhone and iPad.
Preview Link Before Opening on Mac
In order to preview links on Mac before opening, you will have to manually enable the URL Status bar by going to Safari Settings.
Open Safari browser on Mac > select the View tab in top-menu bar and click on Show Status Bar option in the drop-down menu.
Once Show Status bar option is enabled, you can view the full URL Address of any link on Mac by hoovering mouse over the Link.
As you can see in above image, the full URL Address of the Link can be viewed in the status bar, located at the bottom-left corner of the page.
At any time, you can disable link preview by selecting the View tab in top-menu bar and clicking on Hide Status Bar option in the drop-down menu.
Preview Link Before Opening on iPhone
Although, the Safari browser on iPhone or iPad does not feature a URL Status bar, it is possible to preview the full URL of Links on iPhone, before opening them.
Tap and Hold on the Link that you want to preview on iPhone and you will immediately find the page loading in a New Pop-up window.
To preview URL of the Link, tap on Hide Preview option located at top-right corner of the pop-up window.
This will switch OFF the Thumbnail Preview and you will see the complete URL of the webpage that the Link is leading to.
If the URL looks safe, you can tap on the Open option in the contextual menu that appears below the preview pop-up.
At any time, you can get back the Thumbnail preview by selecting Tap to show preview option in the pop-up window.