What to Know

• You can't make an iPad full-screen in every situation.
• For Safari, you can hide the toolbar and the side panel for more space. But a small menu is always present.
• To get full-screen videos on an iPad, tap the square or arrows on the corner of the video player.

This article explains the situations in which you can go full screen on iPad and how to do it.

How to Get a Full Screen on iPad in Safari

Having Safari go full-screen is appealing if you wish to have the most immersive web browsing experience possible. While there isn't a full-screen button in Safari, there are a few ways to use up more of the tablet's screen. Here are your options:

1. Tap theaAbutton to the left of the page's URL, then tapHide Toolbar. The page won't go completely full screen, but it's as close as you can get.
   

   

   The toolbar will reappear the next time you close out of Safari.

2. Tap themenubutton at the top left of Safari. This will collapse that menu and give you way more room to view web pages.
   

   

3. Tap thethree dotsat the top of the browser, then selectFull Screen. This method, which also works in Chrome and other browsers, is useful if you're currently viewing a website in Split View mode.

   

4. Add the web page to the Home Screen. This will create a shortcut to the page next to all your other apps. When you tap the shortcut, it will open the website in Safari, ideally in full-screen mode.
   

   

   This doesn't work on all websites. If the web developer added the right code to their website, then opening the shortcut will hide everything else on the page, making the site show in full screen.

5. Another way to make Safari on iPad go full screen is with a bit of JavaScript. This method isn't ideal because it doesn't stick around as you click through web pages and it's too easy to exit, but it is helpful in some situations.

   To do this, you need to make a normal bookmark and then edit it so it points to this instead of a real URL:

    javascript:document.documentElement.webkitRequestFullScreen()

   Here's what it looks like when a website goes full screen in Safari:

   

How to Make Videos on iPad Go Full Screen

Another way to go full screen on an iPad is when watching videos. Some apps offer actual full screen, with no menu bar at the top, while others keep the menu bar. You can't control which is which; it's up to the app developer.

To watch a video in full-screen mode, tap the full-screen button on the video player. Different apps and websites use a different button, but it's usually either a square or a set of two arrows.

If you're viewing the video picture-in-picture, tap the right-corner icon showing two squares.

Does the iPad Go Full Screen?

If you want to get full screen on your iPad-that is, no clock, date, or battery icon at the top-we've got bad news for you: There's no way to do it. At least, not in every situation. Some apps allow it and others don't. Unfortunately, there isn't a system-wide full-screen button in iPadOS.