Use ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity as Safari Search Engine
Earlier this week, OpenAI updated the iPhone ChatGPT app with a native Safari extension that allows you to send your Safari search queries directly to ChatGPT instead of Google. This is a great feature, but what if you prefer another LLM search engines, such as Claude or Perplexity? In this guide, I will show you how to use ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or any other LLM as your Safari search engine.
Use ChatGPT as Safari search engine
Let’s start by redirecting your Safari searches to ChatGPT, as it is the easiest to set up. For this to work, you need the ChatGPT app on your iPhone. If it’s not installed on your iPhone, you can click the link to download the app. If it’s already installed on your iPhone, update it to the latest version.
OpenAI
1. Now launch the Safari app on your iPhone, open any website, and tap the Menu button in the bottom left corner.
2. Now open Manage Extensions settings.
3. Here, enable the toggle next to ChatGPT Search.
4. First time you search, it will ask to allow this extension. Tap on Allow Always to continue. It will also ask you to log in with your ChatGPT account if you have not already done so in the app.
When you type a search query into Safari's address bar and hit the "Go" button, Safari will use ChatGPT to perform the search instead of Google.
Use Perplexity, Claude, or other LLM as Safari search engine
Now let’s see how you can set any other LLM, such as Perplexity or Claude as Safari search engines. Since these apps don’t offer Safari extensions, we will use a third-party app called Redirect Web.
Manabu Nakazawa
The app installs a Safari extension that redirects any searches you made in Safari to an LLM search engine of your choice. Let’s see how this works.
First, we have to enable the Redirect Web extension in Safari as we did for the ChatGPT search. But this time, I will show you a different method.
To enable the extension, launch the Settings app. Now go to Apps → Safari → Extensions → Redirect Web, and turn it on.
Now that we have enabled the extension in Safari, let’s see how it works.
1. Launch the app, skip through the setup screens, and tap the New Rule button in the top-right corner.
2. Give it a name in the first field. Since I want to create a redirect rule for using the Perplexity search engine, I will name it Google to Perplexity.
3. In the REDIRECT FROM field, we will add the text string that matches Google search queries.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to learn it. Simply copy and paste the following string in the From field.
https?://(?:www.)?google.(?:com|com.[a-z]{2}|co.[a-z]{2}|[a-z]{2})/search?(?:.&)?q=([^&]).*4. Now change the URL Pattern from Wildcard to Regular Expression.
5. Finally, paste the follwing string to the Perplexity search engine in the REDIRECT TO field and hit the Save button.
https://www.perplexity.ai/search?q=$1
We have done the setup and are ready to reap the benefits. Launch Safari, type any query and hit the go button. Safari is using the Perplexity search engine instead of Google or ChatGPT.
Similarly, you can use Claude as your preferred search engine. You only need to change the Redirect To field from Perplexity to Claude. Let’s create and see if it works.
I will create a new rule and name it Google to Claude. Add the Google search string in the Redirect From field and change the URL Pattern to Regular Expression.
Now, enter the Claude URL instead of the Perplexity, and hit save.
https://claude.ai/new?q=$1
That's it. Now when you search on Safari, it will use Claude AI. Note that Claude AI is a paid product so you will need a paid account to use it.
Using the same method, you can use any LLM as your search engine. I have added the Redirect To links to several LLMs below. I will keep updating the guide to add links to more LLMs in future.
Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/search?q=$1
Claude: https://claude.ai/new?q=$1
Microsoft Copilot: https://www.bing.com/search?showconv=1&sendquery=1&q=$1If there's a specific LLM you'd like me to test and add to the list, drop its name in the comments below. Also, you can click this article to discover three ways to access ChatGPT via Apple Intelligence on your iPhone.
Thanks to Macstories for discovering the LLM search strings.
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