# The Magic Highlighter — Your search engine assistant.

> Safari extension that automatically highlights search terms on search result pages. (iPhone/iPad app by Herd Works Inc.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-magic-highlighter/id1663033087 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Herd Works Inc](https://appshunter.io/developer/1662987099)
- Category: Productivity, Utilities
- Price: $1.99
- Rating: 3.90/5 from 20 App Store ratings · 32 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.0 · 4 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2023-02-14
- Data updated: 2026-08-22
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-magic-highlighter/id1663033087/reviews.md

## What is The Magic Highlighter?

Introducing the Magic Highlighter, a Safari Extension for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that automatically highlights search terms and phrases on search result web pages. Find what you’ve been searching for.

* Supports all popular search engines, including Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Neeva, Kagi, and Brave Search!
* %100 private! All data processed on-device, with no data collection
* Automatically highlight search terms and phrases on search result web pages
* Full replacement for the "Find in page" share sheet action, and the ⌘-F keyboard shortcut!
* Use the ⌘-Shift-F keyboard shortcut on Mac and iPad (with external keyboard) to change highlight colors, and disable highlights for specific terms and phrases
* Supports highlighting MULTIPLE terms and phrases

⌘-F(TW)!

## Key features

- Highlights search terms automatically
- Supports popular search engines
- 100% private, on-device processing
- Replaces 'Find in page'
- Customizable highlight colors
- Highlights multiple terms

## Chart rankings

- #189 in Top Paid · Productivity (US App Store)

## Recent user reviews (10 of 32)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-magic-highlighter/id1663033087/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Doesn’t work on Kagi - abandoned

*2024-12-25*

The app doesn’t work on Kagi, despite claiming it does. I filed a support ticket a year ago. The developer hasn’t updated the app since, or responded, so it appears abandoned. I recommend folks stay away.

I’ll note that the highlighting still seems to work fine with other search engines.

### 1/5 — Does not work

*2024-07-02*

I have tried many times of following the steps but it doesn’t work waste of the money.

### 1/5 — Wasted money on this

*2024-06-19*

Quite useless and misleading.

### 5/5 — Works great

*2024-01-29*

Not sure why recent reviews have comment on it not working. Works great on my iPad/iPhone.

### 1/5 — Cool idea.  Visually garish

*2024-01-28*

The idea is smart, but it makes your webpages look awful.  

Especially if you search for tiny words and it highlights every “a” and “the” etc on the page.  

You can’t customize the highlight color with a transparency to try to tone it down that way.  

I believe the app has not received an update since it came out.

### 2/5 — Unmaintained

*2024-01-23*

A great concept ruined by its unfinished nature and lack of improvements. Feature requests go unanswered for months.

### 1/5 — Simply awful in ADO

*2023-12-31*

• Only a single colour can be applied per web-page
• enabled search strings only (seem to) apply to _some_ strings  that are in view, after scrolling all strings are highlighted regardless of whether they are enabled

### 1/5 — ARNAQUE?

*2023-09-08*

n'apparait pas dans les préférences de safari sur mon IMAC   bon je n'ai dépensé que 2,00€ mais quand meme.
a éviter

### 1/5 — dernière mise à jour👎

*2023-09-07*

Plus possible de trouver l application dans safari config pourtant ok

### 1/5 — cannot open to new tab after installing this.

*2023-09-02*

not worth it

## Frequently asked questions about The Magic Highlighter

### What does the Magic Highlighter app do?

The Magic Highlighter is a Safari Extension that automatically highlights your search terms and phrases directly on search result web pages. It aims to help you quickly locate the information you are looking for without manually scanning pages.

### Which search engines are supported by Magic Highlighter?

This extension supports all popular search engines, including Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Neeva, Kagi, and Brave Search. It is designed to work seamlessly across a wide range of platforms where Safari is available.

### Is Magic Highlighter free to use?

Yes, the Magic Highlighter is a free application. There are no costs associated with downloading or using its features, and it does not contain any in-app purchases or advertisements.

### What devices is Magic Highlighter compatible with?

The Magic Highlighter is available as a Safari Extension for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It is designed to enhance your browsing experience across these Apple devices.

### How does Magic Highlighter improve the search experience?

It automates the process of finding your search terms on result pages, acting as a full replacement for the 'Find in page' function and the standard Command-F shortcut. You can also customize highlight colors and disable highlights for specific terms.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 0.7.1 — 2023-09-06

Long-overdue bugfixes, with more coming soon...

* Fixed issue with Magic Highlights on DuckDuckGo 
* Fixed background color styling issues, hopefully including issue where The Magic Highlighter was causing problems with other Safari Extensions that apply "dark mode" styling to websites that don't natively support it.  
* Fixed bug that could prevent phrase deletion (⌘-Shift-F + D) 
* Fixed selected phrase styling (⌘-Shift-F + ↑ or ↓ arrows); the actively selected phrase should now appear as bold text 
* Fixed an issue that prevented ⌘-Click support, and overall improved click handling 
* Fix dark mode styles for magic highlight toggle and options icons

### 0.7.0 — 2023-05-11

* NEW toggle to disable magic highlights (#1 most popular request)
* NEW ⌘-Option-F keyboard shortcut to toggle magic highlights (#2 most popular request)
* NEW support for noise word filtering (#3 most popular request)
* NEW support for the Ecosia search engine (ecosia.org)
* NEW support for Google Ukraine (google.com.ua)
* NEW keyboard shortcuts 1—6 for selecting a highlight color
* NEW support for user-defined highlight colors
* NEW support for configuring the default highlight color
* NEW options page (beta) for modifying user configuration, including custom highlight colors and stop words.
* UPDATED: the macOS app icon now has rounded corners :)

### 0.6.1 — 2023-04-03

Fixed an issue with magic highlights affecting Google users on iOS 16.4 and macOS 13.3. 

See: https://github.com/herdworks/feedback/issues/19

### 0.6 — 2023-02-28

NEW: 

* Added support for adding new phrases (built-in ⌘-F replacement)
* Added new keyboard shortcut for adding new phrases: ⌘-Shift-F + F (Mac and iPad only)
* Added a new "+" button for adding new phrases (helpful on iPhone/iPad)
* Added support for toggling all highlights on/off 
* Added new keyboard shortcut for toggling all highlights: ⌘-Shift-F + A (Mac and iPad only)
* Added support for deleting highlighter phrases 
* Added new keyboard shortcut for deleting highlighter phrases: ⌘-Shift-F + D (Mac and iPad only)
* Added support for pre-populating new phrase input with text selection (select text, ⌘-Shift-F, enter, esc)
* Added stats! Open the popup to counts for individual phrases (and a total/sum)

UPDATED:

* minor performance improvements 
* Improved keyboard navigation in the popup (try ↑, ↓, ←, →, and Tab)
* Updated keyboard shortcut description (for iPad "Show all keyboard shortcuts" UI)

### 0.5.2 — 2023-02-21

NEW

* Added support for Kagi (privacy-oriented search engine)
* Added support for Neeva (privacy-oriented search engine)
* Added support for Brave Search

IMPROVED

* Added support for 23 international Google TLDs (e.g. google.co.uk, google.ca, google.de, etc)! 
* Fixed some issues where The Magic Highlighter wouldn't work well with certain dark mode extensions (e.g. Noir)

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## More apps by Herd Works Inc

- [HyperTexting](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hypertexting/id6744946286)

All apps by Herd Works Inc: https://appshunter.io/developer/1662987099

## Related topics

[highlighter for safari](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/highlighter-for-safari) · [highlighter document](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/highlighter-document) · [highlighter pen](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/highlighter-pen)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-22.*