How to stop users selecting text in a UIWebView or WKWebView

Written by Paul Hudson    @twostraws

Using a web view to show rich media easily is a common thing to do, but by default users can select the text and that makes it look a little less like native code. To fix this, add the following CSS to the HTML you load, and users won't be able to select anything again:

<style type="text/css">
* {
    -webkit-touch-callout: none;
    -webkit-user-select: none;
}
</style>

Available from iOS 2.0

Did this solution work for you? Please pass it on!

Tweet

Other people are reading…

• How to swipe to delete UITableViewCells
• How to share content with UIActivityViewController
• How to make UITableViewCell separators go edge to edge
• How to make a button glow when tapped with showsTouchWhenHighlighted
• How to stop your UISearchController bar hiding when you scroll

About the Swift Knowledge Base

This is part of the Swift Knowledge Base, a free, searchable collection of solutions for common iOS questions.