How do I view desktop site on mobile?

It's easy to request a desktop site in iOS 13.Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
  • To request a desktop site on the iOS 13 Safari app, you'll need to use a menu hidden in the search bar.
  • Not all webpages will allow you to load a desktop site in Safari.
  • Once you request a desktop site, Safari will automatically default to that setup whenever you load the page.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Back before mobile phones were all tiny computers, trying to see a website on your phone was difficult, and sometimes even impossible.

Today, that's not an issue. Most people browse the internet via their phones, and as a result, almost every website has two separate versions: a mobile version and a desktop version.

When you open a website on your iPhone, the site knows this, and will automatically show you the mobile site. This is usually convenient until you find a website that has a bad mobile version.

Maybe it doesn't have all the features that the desktop site does, or is just ugly. Because of this, it's occasionally still necessary to view a desktop site on your phone.

On an iPhone running iOS 13, you can still request and load the desktop version of any site. Here's how to do it.

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How to request a desktop site on iOS 13 in Safari

1. On your iPhone running iOS 13, open Safari and head to the website you'd like to see the desktop version of.

2. Wait a few moments for the page to fully load. Once it's loaded, scroll up so that you can see the search bar, and then tap the "Aa" button.

Scroll up and tap the "Aa" button to the left of the search bar.Melanie Weir/Business Insider

3. From the pop-up menu that appears, select "Request Desktop Site."

Tap the "Request Desktop Site" option.Melanie Weir/Business Insider

Note that while all sites will let you request a desktop site, not all sites will actually give you one some will just refresh the page but keep displaying the mobile site.

You should also note that when you do this, Safari will remember your preferences, so the next time you go to this site, it will display the desktop version.

If at any point you want to switch back to the mobile version, just repeat this process the button in step three will have changed to "Request Mobile Site" instead.

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