Modern website browsers automatically detects the type of browsing devices and then load the websites page according to the size of the screen of phone or computer. You might need to load desktop version of a website when seeing a mobile site in Safari browser on your iPhone or iOS device. Because mobile version of the website is always made with less content and may have limited features too. Safari browser gives a built-in option from iOS 8 to see desktop version but, in iOS 9 this option is moved to another location. To see how to load desktop version of a site in Safari the follow the given steps below.
See also: iOS 9 Tips and Tricks
View desktop version of website on iPhone
These steps only works in iOS 9 or later versions and if you are running any older version of the iOS then check this guide to view website’s desktop version.
- In Safari, when you open a website URL and seeing mobile version of the website. Here, at the bottom the screen tap the middle icon as shown below and you may see this icon next to the address bar at the top. This will open different sharing and other options to select.
- Swipe-left on the bottom section of icons and you will see “Request Desktop Site” icon at the end. Simply tap this icon to load desktop site in Safari browser on your iPhone.
- To go back to mobile site, just access the Safari browser options again and request desktop site again to load the mobile version of the site. You can also just close the site tab and enter the url again in the address bar.
If you don’t see any difference after requesting desktop site then website may using responsive layout for pages to handle all sizes of screens.
Most of the well developed websites gives alternate options in the website navigation to switch between desktop and mobile sites. These link can easily be found in the footer links as Wikipedia did or may be somewhere in the mobile site main menu. Use these links If you having any trouble with Safari’s built-in option.