Want to check validity of a link before opening it on iPhone? With a desktop web browser, such as Edge, IE, Chrome, Firefox, you can simply move your mouse cursor over a link to show the link address normally at the bottom left corner of your browser without clicking on it. iOS devices however have the hover problem as touch devices have no concept of hover. Is it possible to view or copy a link address without opening it in Safari for iPhone iPad?
Press and hold is the workaround
In Safari for iPhone or iPad, you can long press on a link to show its full link address before open it. Press and hold on a touch screen device is similar to right-clicking on our computers. It will bring up the context menu and allow us to quickly access context-specific shortcuts.
Open the web page in Safari browser on your iPhone or iPad, tap and hold on the link until you get the action menu.
You can preview the URL link address at the top of this action menu followed with several options like Open, Open in New Tab, Add to Reading List, Copy, Share…, etc. In this way you can find a link address without opening or tapping it in Safari on iPhone iPad. If like, you can choose Copy to copy the link to the clipboard and paste it to a document, search engine or anywhere else.