Before clicking on an unknown link, it is a good security practice to Preview the full URL Address of the link and make sure that you are not being lead to an unknown website.
In order to do this, you need to enable the option to “Show Status bar” in the Safari browser on your Mac, which does not Show the Status bar by default.
Once the option to Show Status Bar is enabled in Safari browser, you will be able to preview links before clicking on them by hoovering the mouse over the Links.
Preview Link Before Opening on Mac & iPhone
You can find below the steps to enable “Show Status Bar” option in the default Safari browser on your Mac, after which you will be able to Preview Links by hoovering the mouse over links.
In the case of iPhone, Safari browser does not feature a URL Status bar. However, it is possible to preview the full URL of Links on iPhone by using steps as provided below in this guide.
1. Preview Link Before Opening on Mac
As mentioned above, you won’t be able to Preview Links before opening them, unless the option to “Show Status Bar” is manually enabled in Safari browser.
1. Open the Safari browser on your Mac.
2. Select the View tab in top-menu bar and select Show Status Bar option in the drop-down menu.
3. Once Show Status bar option is enabled, you can view the full URL Address of any link on Mac by hoovering the Mouse over Link.
As you can see in above image, the complete URL Address of the Link can be viewed in the status bar, located at bottom-left corner of the page.
4. 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.
2. Preview Link Before Opening on iPhone
While, the Safari browser on iPhone does not feature a URL Status bar, it is still possible to preview the full URL of Links on iPhone, before opening them.
1. 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.
2. To preview the URL of 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 be able to see the complete URL of the webpage that the Link is leading to.
3. If the URL looks safe, you can tap on the Open option in the 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.