safari profiles

Safari profiles in iOS 17 are a game-changer — here's how to set them up

iOS 17 lets you set up different sets of tabs and favorites in Safari— here's how

Safari's biggest upgrade in iOS 17 is browsing profiles — the ability to create separate groups of tabs and bookmarks within a single app. These can follow you across your iPad and Mac too, but in this guide we're going to show you how to get going using an iPhone running iOS 17.

You may be a bit confused why there's no obvious place in Safari to add a profile, and we certainly were too. The trick is that you need to add the profile in Settings first, then set things up after that in Safari itself. Don't worry though; read on to get to our step-by-step instructions on how to set up browsing profiles in Safari, and you won't get lost.

Or if you've not got the iOS 17 update on your iPhone yet, check our how to download iOS 17 guide before proceeding.

How to set up browsing profiles in Safari in iOS 17

• Create a new Safari profile in the Settings app
• Customize the profile's name, icon and more
• In Safari, open the Tabs menu then tap the Profiles icon
• Select your new profile and set up your tabs and favorites

We've got full instructions and demo images below if you need more detail.

1. Create a new Safari profile in the Settings app

Scroll a short way down the main settings page to find the Safari section. Within the Safari options, scroll to find the Profiles heading, and then tap New Profile.

2. Customize the profile's name, icon and more

Enter a title for the Profile, choose an icon and color from Apple's pre-sets. You can also pick which set of Favorites this profile will use, and which page will appear when you open a new tab.

3. In Safari, open the Tabs menu, then tap the Profiles icon

Tap the Tabs icon on the far right of the Safari window, then open the drop-down menu by tapping the Profile section in the middle of the bar at the bottom of the screen.

4. Select your new profile and set up your tabs and favorites

Under your tab groups, you'll see a menu that leads to you your profiles. Select the one you want, and you'll have a brand-new set of tabs and favorites to sort out. Repeat steps three and four if you need to swap back again.

Take a look at our full iOS 17 review if you want to learn about more new features included in the update. And check out our guides on the big new abilities that just dropped on your iPhone such as how to set up StandBy Mode in iOS 17 , how to create a Contact Poster or how to use Check In in Messages .

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Richard is based in London, covering news, reviews and how-tos for phones, tablets, gaming, and whatever else people need advice on. Following on from his MA in Magazine Journalism at the University of Sheffield, he's also written for WIRED U.K., The Register and Creative Bloq. When not at work, he's likely thinking about how to brew the perfect cup of specialty coffee.

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Keep Home & Work Separate with Safari Profiles (iOS 17)

You can now create different profiles for Safari, enabling you to separate your tabs and bookmarks for work, school, personal life, and more. The latest version of iOS allows you to have multiple profiles, each with its own settings and browsing data. You can have different Safari browsing experiences for all your different needs. Read on to find out how this new feature works!

Why You’ll Love This Tip:

• Separate browsing sessions based on where you are or the time of day.
• Stay focused if you are studying for school or find yourself easily distracted at work.

How to Set Up Safari Profiles on iPhone

System requirements:.

This tip works on iPhones running iOS 17 or later. iOS 17 is currently in beta and is expected to be publicly available in September 2023. When iOS 17 is publicly released, you can learn how to update your OS .

Safari Profiles are similar to Focus modes in that each profile has its own unique browsing session, so you can, for example, create separate profiles for browsing the web at work and at home. To get the most out of this feature and others, be sure to sign up for our free Tip of the Day newsletter! I’ve used this feature to create a work profile for myself. Since I need to take lots of screenshots for articles like this one, a work profile means I can grab screenshots in Safari without having to show all my open tabs. Here’s how to get started with Safari Profiles:

Now, you can create different profiles for different activities or times of day. Your profiles will also sync with your iPad and Mac, assuming both devices are running the latest software.

Author Details

Rhett Intriago

Rhett Intriago is a Feature Writer at iPhone Life, offering his expertise in all things iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods. He enjoys writing on topics related to maintaining privacy in a digital world, as well as iPhone security. He’s been a tech enthusiast all his life, with experiences ranging from jailbreaking his iPhone to building his own gaming PC.

Despite his disdain for the beach, Rhett is based in Florida. In his free time, he enjoys playing the latest games, spoiling his cats, or discovering new places with his wife, Kyla.

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How to create and use profiles in Safari on iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Learn how to create and use profiles in Safari on iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma to keep your personal and work browsing separate.

If you use Google Chrome on your Mac, you may be familiar with its profile feature . In my opinion, this is one of the best things about the world’s most popular browser.

Safari on iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma have a similar feature that lets you create multiple work or personal profiles, helping you keep your browsing history, cookies, favorites bookmarks, extensions, and Tab Groups separate.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to create and use profiles in Safari for a separate yet personalized browsing experience.

Create a new profile in Safari

Profiles you create and profile customization you make sync via iCloud. As a result, a profile you created in Safari on Mac will also appear on your iPhone and iPad, having the same Apple ID .

1) Open Safari, and from the top menu bar, click Safari > Settings .

2) Select the Profiles tab.

3) Click New Profile .

4) Give this profile a name. After that, choose a symbol and color. Next, you can create a new bookmarks folder to keep things separate or use an existing folder as the destination for websites you mark as favorites .

5) With all done, click the Create Profile  button.

Safari will open a new window for this profile. Your search history from this profile, cookies, Tab Groups, and favorites will stay separate from your main Safari profile.

Note: Reading List isn’t separate, and you may see your original Reading List entries even in the new profile.

Additionally, you can go to Safari Settings > Profiles > select this profile > Extensions and choose to enable or disable extensions you have installed in Safari.

You can create more profiles by clicking the plus button (+) on the Profiles screen of Safari settings.

On iPhone and iPad

If you created a profile in Safari on Mac, you can open Safari on your iOS device and find this profile there. In addition to that, you can also create Safari profiles right from your iPhone or iPad:

1) Open the Settings app on your device running iOS 17.

2) Scroll down and tap Safari .

3) Tap New Profile under the Profiles heading.

4) Give it a name, pick an icon, and select a color.

5) Select a Favorites folder. By default, the Favorites folder of standard Safari with no profile is selected. To keep things separate, tap New Folder , and it will now create another favorites folder for this profile instead of using your existing favorites.

6) Finally, tap Done .

Once you have created a profile, you can tap its name and then manage the extensions or change its existing settings.

Use profiles in Safari

You will see the Profile option inside Safari only after creating at least one profile using the steps above. Once you have done that, here’s how to use it.

1) Open Safari.

• If you don’t see a profile name in the top left corner, you’re browsing in standard, no profile mode.
• If you see the name of a profile (like Tech Work in the image below), that means you’re browsing inside that profile.

2) To open a window of a profile:

• Click File from the top menu bar and choose New Profile Name Window . If you have more than one profile, they all will appear here. For example, I have added two profiles in Safari, and thus, you can see the New Tech Work Window and New Other Work Window .
• If you select New Window , it will open a window without a profile.

1) Open Safari and tap the tabs icon .

2) Tap the arrow button and choose Profile .

3) Select a profile.

1) Go inside Safari and tap the sidebar icon  from the top left.

2) Tap Profile and select one.

Edit or delete Safari profiles

Editing or removing a profile on one device will reflect on all your Apple devices where you use the same Apple ID.

1) Open Safari and click Safari > Settings .

2) Go to Profiles and select a profile.

3) Here, you can customize the name, symbol, color, and favorites folder, as well as decide what shows up when you open a new window or tab.

4) To delete a profile, select it, click the minus button , and hit Delete Profile .

On iPhone or iPad

1) Launch the Settings app and go to Safari .

2) Tap an added profile name.

3) Here, you can change its existing settings.

4) And to get rid of a profile, hit Delete Profile and confirm.

Other Safari tips:

• How to download videos from Safari on iPhone and iPad
• How to pin tabs in Safari on iPhone, iPad, and Mac
• How to add or remove your credit card details from Safari on iPhone, iPad, or Mac

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How to Create Safari Profiles on Mac, iPhone, and iPad

For individuals sharing devices, maintaining privacy and customization freedom can be challenging. Fortunately, Safari has introduced a feature allowing users to create multiple profiles. Each profile carries unique browsing information, such as cookies, history, and other customization preferences, like tab groups and extensions. This guide provides step-by-step instructions for creating multiple Safari profiles on your Apple devices.

How to Set Up a Safari Profile

On an iphone or ipad, how to switch profiles in safari, how to delete profiles in safari.

To create your Safari Profile, you must have Safari 17 or later. Safari 17 is included with iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma or later. Download it separately on macOS Monterey and macOS Ventura. To check your Safari version, go to Safari -> About Safari .

Note that when you create your first profile, the system will automatically create a default profile, Personal , which includes your current history, tab groups, favorites, extensions, and bookmarks.

Also, remember that if you create a profile on one of your Apple devices, it will appear in the Safari settings on your other devices that use the same Apple ID.

Tip: update your Apple ID and password anytime by entering your system settings.

To create a Safari profile on your Mac, follow these steps:

Open Safari , go to the menu bar, and select Safari -> Create Profile . Alternatively, choose Safari -> Settings , then select the Profiles tab.

Click Start Using Profiles .

Enter a name, and select a symbol and color for your new profile.

Tick Create new bookmarks folder to create a new folder for your favorite bookmarks, then click Create Profile .

After creating your new profile, you can customize how Safari opens new windows and tabs. By default, Safari opens new windows and tabs to your start page.

Click the Extensions tab to select which Safari extensions you would like to use with your profile.

To create a Safari profile on your iPhone or iPad, head to Settings -> Safari -> New Profile . Customize your profile by adding a name and selecting an icon and color. Choose whether to create a new Favorites folder or assign an existing one for your profile. Customize it as described above.

Once you’ve created your profile, you can see your current profile on the Safari toolbar. Mac has a button with the profile’s name, symbol, and color. You’ll only see the Safari profile’s icon on the iPhone and iPad.

If you want to switch profiles on your Mac, click the Profile button, and select Switch to [Profile] Window .

The process is similar on the iPhone or iPad: tap the Profile icon, tap Profile , then select the profile you want to switch to.

Also Helpful: once you set up your Safari profiles, swap from Chrome to Safari as your default browser in minutes.

You can delete a profile you’ve made in Safari anytime, but this can’t be undone and will also delete all the browsing information related to the profile. The only exception is the default Personal profile, which houses all the existing browsing information, like bookmarks and tab groups, that you had before you created a Safari Profile.

To delete a profile on your Mac, go to Safari’s menu bar, and click Safari -> Manage Profiles . Select the profile you want to delete, and click Remove (-) .

Once you click the Remove button, a window will pop up asking you if you’re sure you want to delete the profile. Select Delete Profile .

If you only have one profile other than the default profile, removing it will remove the Profiles feature altogether. If you want this, remove the profile and select Delete and Stop Using Profiles .

On your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings -> Safari . Scroll to Profiles , select a profile, and tap Delete Profile -> Delete .

Enjoy a Unique Browsing Experience

With Safari Profiles, you can tailor your browsing experience for each part of your life. This feature also simplifies device-sharing experiences by keeping tabs from different profiles separate, avoiding repetitive logins, and ensuring seamless transitions between users using the same website.

However, creating a Safari Profile is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to customization. Pairing it with other Safari customization features , like tab groups and bookmarks, will elevate your browsing journey even more.

All images and screenshots by Rachel Ann Melegrito.

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Rachel Melegrito is a health and tech writer who enjoys educating herself and others about topics that provide value to one's well being, health, and overall productivity.

How to Set Up and Use Profiles in Safari on iPhone, iPad and Mac

Starting with Safari 17, users can now create profiles. This allows you to have different sets of bookmarks and extensions, which you might use to separate your browsing experience into categories, such as work, personal, school, etc.

These profiles allow you to keep some things more private; you don’t need your coworkers seeing your health, financial or hobby-related bookmarks. You can also use the profiles to help organize your browsing. You can create customized profiles to separate your work, health and finances, hobbies and more to make it easier to find your bookmarks by decluttering your start page.

Each of your profiles will have separate histories, cookies and website data, extensions, Favorites and Tab Groups. You will be able to use your profiles across all your Apple devices.

How to create a profile in Safari

To use profiles on Mac, you must be running Safari 17, which is available for macOS Monterey, Ventura and Sonoma. To check your Safari version, open Safari, go to the top menu bar and select Safari > About Safari .

• Open Safari on your Mac and choose Safari > Settings from the top menu bar.
• Click on the Profiles tab, then select Start Using Profiles .

• Choose a name, a color and a symbol for your new profile. To see more symbols, click on the circle with three dots.
• You can also create a new bookmarks folder or choose an existing one. Click Create Profile .

• If you want to use certain extensions with this new profile, you can click on the Extensions tab and check the boxes next to ones you want to enable. For example, you may want Grammarly enabled for a work profile and Capital One Shopping enabled for your personal profile.

• Now, if you chose to create a new bookmarks folder, you can start adding websites. On your new profile’s Safari start page, you should see that you can open your (existing) bookmarks in the sidebar. Then, you can drag some to your new profile’s start page. You can also edit your bookmarks the usual way by going to the menu bar at the top and selecting Bookmarks > Edit Bookmarks .

After you have set up your first profile, you can add more or edit the existing profiles by going to Safari > Settings and clicking on the Profiles tab.

On iPhone or iPad

In order to use Safari profiles, you will need to be running iOS/iPadOS 17 or later.

• Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad and tap on Safari .
• Scroll down to the Profiles section and tap on New Profile .
• Choose a name, symbol and color. Tap the three dots for more symbols or color options.
• Next to Favorites, choose an existing bookmarks folder or create a new one.
• Tap Done in the upper-right corner of the screen. Now, you will need to open Safari to edit your new profile.

• With Safari open, tap on the Tabs button in the bottom-right of your screen. Tap the Tab Groups button (which will be some symbol in the bottom-center of the screen) and switch to your new profile.

• To add new websites to your new profile’s Favorites bookmarks, tap the plus sign [+] under the name of your profile on the start page.

• If you want to use extensions with your profile, open Settings and tap on Safari . Tap Extensions , then tap on one of your extensions. Toggle the switch next to a profile to enable the extension for that profile.

How to switch profiles

On Mac, after you have set up a Safari profile, you will see a menu button at the top of your Safari window where you can select a different profile.

To use a profile on iPhone or iPad, open Safari and tap on the Tabs button. Tap Profile to change to another profile.

Related articles

• ‘Prevent Cross-Site Tracking’ in Safari Explained
• How to Disable Private Browsing in Safari on iPhone or iPad
• Where Do Downloads Go in Safari on iPhone or iPad?
• How to Remove Frequently Visited in Safari
• How to Remove Safari Reading List from iPhone, iPad, or Mac

Dr. Stacey Butler is a tech writer at macReports covering news, how-tos, and user guides. She is a longtime Mac and iPhone user and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She is a former faculty member and a math teacher. Here is her LinkedIn profile , Google Scholar profile and her ResearchGate profile . Email Stacey Butler .

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How to Create and Use Safari Profiles on an iPhone and iPad

Safari users can finally create multiple profiles to separate their browsing sessions. Here's how to set them up on your iPhone or iPad.

Apple has added several new and interesting features to Safari in iOS 17 and iPadOS 17. The biggest highlight among these is the profiles feature, which allows you to keep all your browsing data separate for different browsing sessions.

Let's explore Safari profiles in detail and see how you can use it on your iPhone and iPad to organize your browsing experience.

What Is the Profiles Feature in Safari?

Profiles is one of the Safari features in iOS 17 that helps you declutter your browsing experience by keeping your browsing sessions separate for different use cases.

For instance, using the profiles feature, you can create two separate profiles, "personal" and "work" and use them accordingly depending on the use case. Another instance where the profiles feature can come in handy is when you want to share your iPhone or iPad with someone and wish to keep your browsing data isolated from the other person's data.

Each profile in Safari is sandboxed. This means all your browsing data (history, cookies, favorites, extensions, and Safari Tab Groups ) for one profile is isolated from that of the other profile.

How to Create a Safari Profile on Your iPhone and iPad

Safari doesn't have the profiles feature turned on in iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 by default, so you need to enable it manually. Here's how to do this and set up a new profile in Safari:

• Launch Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
• Scroll down and select Safari .
• Scroll down to the PROFILES section and tap on New Profile .

​​​​​​​Then:

• Give a name to this profile. You can also set the icon and pick a color for the profile here. Also, you can choose which Favorites folder the profile can access and the page that appears upon opening a new tab.
• Hit Done to close and create the profile.

As you do this, you'll be taken back to the Safari settings page, and here you'll see the profile you just created under the PROFILES section. Repeat the above steps to create as many profiles as you want.

How to Use and Switch Between Safari Profiles

Once you've created profiles in Safari, using them is easy. Here's a quick look at the steps you need to follow to do this:

• Open the Safari app on your iPhone or iPad.
• Tap the Tabs button and hit the profile button at the very bottom (with the dropdown arrow).
• Now, tap on Profile and select the profile you want to use.

If you want to switch to another profile, repeat the steps and select the other profile.

How to Delete a Safari Profile

If you ever wish to delete a Safari profile, perhaps because it's no longer required, you can delete it by following these steps:

• Go to Settings and select Safari .
• Tap on the profile under PROFILES you want to delete.
• Hit the Delete Profile button and tap Delete again to confirm your action.

Once you delete a profile, all its related browsing data will also be removed from your device.

Organize Your Browsing Experience in Safari

The ability to create multiple browsing profiles in Safari has been a long-awaited feature. Although most web browsers have had the feature for ages, the lack of it in Safari meant many Apple users had to resort to using other web browsers.

Thankfully, Apple's addressed that in iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 by introducing profiles in Safari across all devices, so you can now finally browse the web in an organized manner without any hassle. And by doing so, it has also given users another reason to use Safari over other browsers.

How to Setup and use Multiple Profiles on Safari Browser

Safari is the preferred browser for a majority of iOS users. It is known for security and privacy features second to none. Apple has now announced Safari profiles for iOS, iPadOS, and Mac. The new feature lets you create multiple Safari profiles with separate settings. Safari Profiles is available on iOS 17, iPad OS 17 and macOS Sonoma. 

Why Do We Need Multiple Browser Profiles?

The first question that pops up is why. Multiple profiles are a great way to share your device without disturbing individual settings. This is especially true for iPad, which is often shared with the entire household. Here are some reasons why Safari profiles make a lot of sense. 

• Separate browsing history. Yes, no more sleuthing around others’ profiles. 
• You can have separate profiles under the same Apple ID. Each profile maintains its history, cookies, extensions, tab groups, and other preferences. 
• Multiple-user households are set to benefit the most. 
• One can create separate profiles for work and personal. This way, things will not get mixed up, and productivity will also increase. 

Apart from the above points, Safari profiles add an additional layer of privacy. Furthermore, you can lock Private browsing tabs with Face ID. Please note that Safari profiles is only available on iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma. All of these are in the early beta phase. Thus we don’t recommend installing it on the primary device. 

Steps to Create Multiple Safari Browser Profiles on iPhone and iPad

Time needed:  3 minutes

Already on iOS 17? Here’s how you can set up and use multiple profiles on the Safari browser. 

How to Switch Between Multiple Safari Browser Profiles on iOS and iPad OS

Apple has added a toggle that lets you shift between profiles. Here’s how to do it-

1. Open Safari and select the tabs icon from the bottom right of the screen.

2. Tap the drop down icon at the center.

3. Select the Profile dropdown from the Tab Groups menu. 

4. Select the desired Safari profile and tap Done to finalize the change.

Apple has devised a way to indicate a change in Safari profile. Remember how iOS had asked you to choose a color while creating a new profile? Well, the same color is now the background of the new tabs page. 

How to Create Safari Profiles on macOS 

Safari profiles feature is available on all Macs running macOS Sonoma. Follow the steps below to create and use Safari profiles on Mac.

1. Open Safari browser on your Mac. 

2. Click Safari and select Settings from the menu.

3. Click Profiles. Under the profile, you will see a Profiles button. Tap the button. 

4. Add a Name, Symbol, and color for the new Safari profile. 

5. You can create a new bookmarks folder or use existing ones. 

6. Done with all the settings? Click Create Profile .

There you go! You have finally created a new Safari profile on Mac. We want to highlight some important settings that will enhance user experience. 

Select the Extensions menu. You can whitelist or block certain extensions for a specific profile. New to Safari extensions? Here’s how to manage extension on iPad and iPhone .

We think you might also be interested in how to clear browser cache on Mac for Chrome, Firefox and Safari .

How to Switch Profiles in Safari on Mac

Switching profiles on macOS Sonoma is a seamless experience. You can start browsing with a specific user profile and switch later. Here’s how to do it.

1. Right-click on the Safari icon from the Dock and select New Window .

2. Select an option that says New Personal Window .

3. New Personal window will appear alongside the color scheme you chose earlier. Notice the title bar dropdown on the top right of Safari. The title bar displays the name of the active profile. Click it to switch between multiple profiles.

Supercharge Your Productivity With Multiple Safari Profiles

It has been a while since Google Chrome introduced a multi profile setup. At least in this aspect, Safari is playing catchup. Thankfully, the feature works as expected. It comes in handy when you want to separate professional stuff from private. I have created a separate Safari profile for my work and another for my personal. This way, both things stay separate and eventually help increase productivity. How many profiles do you use on the Safari browser, and for what? Let us know in the comments below. 

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• Mahit Huigol

This hidden iOS 17 feature will restore your work-life balance in Safari — here's how to use it

A big update to Safari on iOS 17

- Compatibility: iPhone XR and later - Release date: September 18 - How to download and install iOS 17 - How to make iOS 17 Contact Posters - How to use StandBy on iOS 17 - How to leave a FaceTime video message on iOS 17

Apple has introduced a brand new feature to iOS 17 you might not have even heard of, but it's one that could drastically improve the work-life balance of your iPhone, specifically in Safari. 

Safari Profiles lets you have separate groups of tabs and bookmarks within the Safari app on your iPhone with iOS 17. In its simplest form, that means you can use your iPhone during the day for work with one set of tabs and bookmarks before switching to a different set of tabs when you aren't at work. It could be the difference between opening Safari and not seeing pesky emails, projects, research papers, or anything else while you're trying to relax at the weekend. Conversely, it means you won't get distracted by memes and cat videos while you're trying to work. 

Such a great feature probably shouldn't be as hard to find as it is. It's buried in the Settings app on your iPhone rather than in Safari itself. 

Luckily, we’ve got you covered and can show you exactly how to set up Safari Profiles on iOS 17 without you having to go on an excursion to find them.

The best thing about Safari Profiles is that each profile you set up has a separate history, cookies, extensions, Tab Groups, and favorites. They also sync between devices, and you can easily add profiles to Focus , so whenever you finish working at the end of the day, your work Safari Profile disappears until 9 am the next morning. Here’s how to set up Safari profiles on iOS 17 to take control of your browsing habits.

• 20 iOS 17 tips and tricks: the ultimate iPhone cheat sheet

How to set up Safari Profiles on iOS 17

There are a few steps to setting up Safari Profiles with an initial setup in Settings followed by fine tweaking in Safari. To get started, here’s how to create a Safari Profile in Settings.

• Open Settings and select Safari
• Under Profiles, tap New Profile
• Pick a name , icon , and color for the Profile

When setting up your Safari Profile, you can also set which Favorites the profile will use and the opening page when you open a new tab. Now that you have created a profile, it’s time to head to Safari and set it up.

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• Open Safari
• Tap the Tabs icon in the bottom right
• You’ll see a Profile icon in the center of your bottom bar
• Tap the Profile icon and choose between your Safari Profiles

You can completely split your Safari browsing between multiple profiles and differentiate between work and personal use easier than ever before.

One more thing... use Safari Profiles on iOS 17 to get on top of your life

Safari Profiles are the next step in taking control of your work-life balance on iOS. After using the feature for over a month now , Safari Profiles feels like the next step in separating work from pleasure.

Like Focus, you’ll need to play around with the feature to find a setup that works for you, but once you do, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without them. I’ve been using Safari Profiles for my different hobbies. For example, I do a lot of fantasy football, and over the summer, my Safari can be overflowing with football transfer news. Now, thanks to Safari Profiles, I have a specific place for all sports-related browsing, and I love it. It's definitely one of my favorite features on iOS 17, alongside Contact Posters and StandBy mode . 

John-Anthony Disotto is the How To Editor of iMore, ensuring you can get the most from your Apple products and helping fix things when your technology isn’t behaving itself. Living in Scotland, where he worked for Apple as a technician focused on iOS and iPhone repairs at the Genius Bar, John-Anthony has used the Apple ecosystem for over a decade and prides himself in his ability to complete his Apple Watch activity rings. John-Anthony has previously worked in editorial for collectable TCG websites and graduated from The University of Strathclyde where he won the Scottish Student Journalism Award for Website of the Year as Editor-in-Chief of his university paper. He is also an avid film geek, having previously written film reviews and received the Edinburgh International Film Festival Student Critics award in 2019.  John-Anthony also loves to tinker with other non-Apple technology and enjoys playing around with game emulation and Linux on his Steam Deck.

In his spare time, John-Anthony can be found watching any sport under the sun from football to darts, taking the term “Lego house” far too literally as he runs out of space to display any more plastic bricks, or chilling on the couch with his French Bulldog, Kermit. 

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How to create Safari profiles in iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma

With the advent of iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma, you can now personalize your way into the digital landscape. Among the notable features of these operating systems is the ability to create Safari profiles, which allows users to customize their browsing experience. In this article, I’ll demonstrate how you can create personalized Safari profiles on iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma with ease.

Importance of creating profiles in Safari

How to create safari profiles on iphone and ipad, how to delete safari profiles on iphone and ipad, how to create safari profiles on mac, how to delete profiles in safari on mac.

Creating profiles in Safari can be an extremely beneficial step for both personal and professional use.

• It enables users to curate personal user profiles so that they can personalize their browsing experience by setting up preferences they like, such as  blocking or clearing cookies , preventing pop-ups, and enabling/disabling JavaScript.
• This feature can turn out to be extremely beneficial for businesses that want to control access to certain sites or have employees use specific settings when browsing.
• If multiple people are operating a device or surfing the internet from the same Apple ID, they can ensure individual privacy according to their preferences.
• All in all, Safari Profiles streamline productivity and help to declutter the browsing environment. These profiles are easily switchable without compromising data of any kind.

So, regardless of the use case, users can enhance their productivity and make the most of this feature when surfing the internet without being wary of privacy.

• Launch the Settings app.
• Scroll down and select the Safari app.
• Tap New Profile categorized under Profiles.
• Allocate Favorites per your preferences.

Now, you can access the created profile from the PROFILES section.

Switch profiles in Safari on iPhone and iPad

• Launch Safari on your iPhone.

• Go to the Settings app → Scroll down and choose Safari .
• Select the profile you wish to delete.

• Launch Safari on your Mac.

• Once your profile is set as per your preference, click Create Profile .

There are a few additional settings you can adjust to complete setting up your profile.

Your Safari Profile is now set up.

Switch profiles in Safari on Mac

• As you launch Safari on Mac, you’ll be prompted with the normal interface.
• To switch user profiles, right-click Safari from the dock.

• The chosen profile will be launched on Safari.

• Go to Safari Settings → Access the Profile menu.

Yes, Safari on iPad provides the ability to create multiple profiles or customize profile names and settings individually.

No, profiles in Safari operate independently, and bookmarks and settings are not synced across different profiles. Each profile functions as a separate browsing environment. 

Yes, you can choose the extensions you wish to save for your profile. However, this will only work for the existing extensions in your Safari .

Yes, if you are using the same Apple ID across multiple devices, then every user profile will be synced thoroughly.

Happy browsing!

Whether you want to separate your work and personal browsing, share your device with family members, or maintain different sets of bookmarks for different interests, Safari profiles have got you covered. So go ahead, explore the possibilities, and make the most out of your browsing experience.

Thank you for reading. If any, please comment down your thoughts.

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Optimizing WebKit & Safari for Speedometer 3.0

Apr 10, 2024

by Alan Baradlay, Antti Koivisto, Matt Woodrow, Patrick Angle, Ryosuke Niwa, Vitor Ribeiro Roriz, Wenson Hsieh, and Yusuke Suzuki

The introduction of Speedometer 3.0 is a major step forward in making the web faster for all, and allowing Web developers to make websites and web apps that were not previously possible. In this article, we explore ways the WebKit team made performance optimizations in WebKit and Safari based on the Speedometer 3.0 benchmark.

In order to make these improvements, we made an extensive use of our performance testing infrastructure. It’s integrated with our continuous integration , and provides the capability to schedule A/B tests. This allows engineers to quickly test out performance optimizations and catch new performance regressions.

Improving Tools

Proper tooling support is the key to identifying and addressing performance bottlenecks. We defined new internal JSON format for JavaScriptCore sampling profiler output to dump and process them offline. It includes a script which processes and generates analysis of hot functions and hot byte codes for JavaScriptCore. We also added FlameGraph generation tool for the dumped sampling profiler output which visualizes performance bottlenecks. In addition, we added support for JITDump generation on Darwin platforms to dump JIT related information during execution. And we improved generated JITDump information for easy use as well. These tooling improvements allowed us to quickly identify bottlenecks across Speedometer 3.0.

Improving JavaScriptCore

Revising megamorphic inline cache (ic).

Megamorphic IC offers faster property access when one property access site observes many different object types and/or property names. We observed that some frameworks such as React contain a megamorphic property access. This led us to continuously improve JavaScriptCore’s megamorphic property access optimizations: expanding put megamorphic IC, adding megamorphic IC for the in operation, and adding generic improvements for megamorphic IC.

Revising Call IC

Call IC offers faster function calls by caching call targets inline. We redesigned Call IC and we integrated two different architectures into different tiers of Just-In-Time (JIT) compilers. Lower level tiers use Call IC without any JIT code generation and the highest level tier uses JIT code generatiton with the fastest Call IC. There is a tradeoff between code generation time and code efficiency, and JavaScriptCore performs a balancing act between them to achieve the best performance across different tiers.

Optimizing JSON

Speedometer 3.0 also presented new optimization opportunities to our JSON implementations as they contain more non-ASCII characters than before. We made our fast JSON stringifier work for unicode characters . We also analyzed profile data carefully and made JSON.parse faster than ever .

Adjusting Inlining Heuristics

There are many tradeoffs when inlining functions in JavaScript. For example, inline functions can more aggressively increase the total bytecode size and may cause memory bandwidth to become a new bottleneck. The amount of instruction cache available in CPU can also influence how effective a given inlining strategy is. And the calculus of these tradeoffs change over time as we make more improvements to JavaScriptCore such as adding new bytecode instruction and changes to DFG’s numerous optimization phases. We took the release of the new Speedometer 3.0 benchmark as an opportunity to adjust inlining heuristics based on data collected in modern Apple silicon Macs with the latest JavaScriptCore.

Make JIT Code Destruction Lazy

Due to complicated conditions, JavaScriptCore eagerly destroyed CodeBlock and JIT code when GC detects they are dead. Since these destructions are costly, they should be delayed and processed while the browser is idle. We made changes so that they are now destroyed lazily, during idle time in most cases.

Opportunistic Sweeping and Garbage Collection

In addition, we noticed that a significant amount of time goes into performing garbage collection and incremental sweeping across all subtests in both Speedometer 2.1 and 3.0. In particular, if a subtest allocated a large number of JavaScript objects on the heap, we would often spend a significant amount of time in subsequent subtests collecting these objects. This had several effects:

• Increasing synchronous time intervals on many subtests due to on-demand sweeping and garbage collection when hitting heap size limits.
• Increasing asynchronous time intervals on many subtests due to asynchronous garbage collection or timer-based incremental sweeping triggering immediately after the synchronous timing interval.
• Increasing overall variance depending on whether timer-based incremental sweeping and garbage collection would fall in the synchronous or asynchronous timing windows of any given subtest.

At a high level, we realized that some of this work could be performed opportunistically in between rendering updates — that is, during idle time — instead of triggering in the middle of subtests. To achieve this, we introduced a new mechanism in WebCore to provide hints to JavaScriptCore to opportunistically perform scheduled work after the previous rendering update has completed until a given deadline (determined by the estimated remaining time until the next rendering update). The opportunistic task scheduler also accounts for imminently scheduled zero delay timers or pending requestAnimationFrame callbacks : if it observes either, it’s less likely to schedule opportunistic work in order to avoid interference with imminent script execution. We currently perform a couple types of opportunistically scheduled tasks:

• Incremental Sweeping : Prior to the opportunistic task scheduler, incremental sweeping in JavaScriptCore was automatically triggered by a periodically scheduled 100 ms timer. This had the effect of occasionally triggering incremental sweeping during asynchronous timing intervals, but also wasn’t aggressive enough to prevent on-demand sweeping in the middle of script execution. Now that JavaScriptCore is knowledgable about when to opportunistically schedule tasks, it can instead perform the majority of incremental sweeping in between rendering updates while there aren’t imminently scheduled timers. The process of sweeping is also granular to each marked block, which allows us to halt opportunistic sweeping early if we’re about to exceed the deadline for the next estimated rendering update.
• Garbage Collection : By tracking the amount of time spent performing garbage collection in previous cycles, we’re able to roughly estimate the amount of time needed to perform the next garbage collection based on the number of bytes visited or allocated since the last cycle. If the remaining duration for performing opportunistically scheduled tasks is longer than this estimated garbage collection duration, we immediately perform either an Eden collection or full garbage collection . Furthermore, we integrated activity-based garbage collections into this new scheme to schedule them at appropriate timing.

Overall, this strategy yields a 6.5% total improvement in Speedometer 3.0 *, decreasing the time spent in every subtest by a significant margin, and a 6.9% total improvement in Speedometer 2.1 *, significantly decreasing the time spent in nearly all subtests.

* macOS 14.4, MacBook Air (M2, 2022)

Various Miscellaneous Optimizations for Real World Use Cases

We extensively reviewed all Speedometer 3.0 subtests and did many optimizations for realistic use cases. The examples include but are not limited to: faster Object.assign with empty objects , improving object spread performance , and so on.

Improving DOM code

Improving DOM code is Speedometer’s namesake, and that’s exactly what we did. For example, we now store the NodeType in the Node object itself instead of relying on a virtual function call. We also made DOMParser use a fast parser, improved its support of li elements , and made DOMParser not construct a redundant DocumentFragment . Together, these changes improved TodoMVC-JavaScript-ES5 by ~20%. We also eliminated O(n^2) behavior in the fast parser for about ~0.5% overall progression in Speedometer 3.0. We also made input elements construct their user-agent shadow tree lazily during construction and cloning , the latter of which is new in Speedometer 3.0 due to web components and Lit tests. We devirtualized many functions and inlined more functions to reduce the function call overheads. We carefully reviewed performance profile data and removed inefficiency in hot paths like repeated reparsing of the same URLs .

Improving Layout and Rendering

We landed a number of important optimizations in our layout and rendering code. First off, most type checks performed on RenderObject are now done using an inline enum class instead of virtual function calls , this alone is responsible for around ~0.7% of overall progression in Speedometer 3.0.

Improving Style Engine

We also optimized the way we compute the properties animated by Web Animations code. Previously, we were enumerating every animatable properties while resolving transition: all . We optimized this code to only enumerate affected properties. This was ~0.7% overall Speedometer 3.0 progression. Animating elements can now be resolved without fully recomputing their style unless necessary for correctness.

Speedometer 3.0 content, like many modern web sites, uses CSS custom properties extensively. We implemented significant optimizations to improve their performance. Most custom property references are now resolved via fast cache lookups, avoiding expensive style resolution time property parsing. Custom properties are now stored in a new hierarchical data structure that reduces memory usage as well.

One key component of WebKit styling performance is a cache (called “matched declarations cache”) that maps directly from a set of CSS declarations to the final element style, avoiding repeating expensive style building steps for identically styled elements. We significantly improved the hit rate of this cache.

We also improved styling performance of author shadow trees, allowing trees with identical styles to share style data more effectively.

Improving Inline Layout

We fixed a number of performance bottlenecks in inline layout engine as well. Eliminating complex text path in Editor-TipTap was a major ~7% overall improvement. To understand this optimization, WebKit has two different code paths for text layout: the simple text path, which uses low level font API to access raw font data, and the complex text path, which uses CoreText for complex shaping and ligatures. The simple text path is faster but it does not cover all the edge cases. The complex text path has full coverage but is slower than the simple text path.

Previously, we were taking the complex text path whenever a non-default value of font-feature or font-variant was used. This is because historically the simple text path wouldn’t support these operations. However, we noticed that the only feature of these still missing in the simple text path was font-variant-caps . By implementing font-variant-caps support for the simple text path , we allowed the simple text path to handle the benchmark content. This resulted in 4.5x improvement in Editor-TipTap subtest, and ~7% overall progression in Speedometer 3.0.

In addition to improving the handling of text content in WebKit, we also worked with CoreText team to avoid unnecessary work in laying out glyphs. This resulted in ~0.5% overall progression in Speedometer 3.0, and these performance gains will benefit not just WebKit but other frameworks and applications that use CoreText.

Improving SVG Layout

Another area we landed many optimizations for is SVG. Speedometer 3.0 contains a fair bit of SVG content in test cases such as React-Stockcharts-SVG. We were spending a lot of time computing the bounding box for repaint by creating GraphicsContext, applying all styles, and actually drawing strokes in CoreGraphics. Here, we adopted Blink ’s optimization to approximate bounding box and made ~6% improvement in React-Stockcharts-SVG subtest. We also eliminated O(n^2) algorithm in SVG text layout code, which made some SVG content load a lot quicker .

Improving IOSurface Cache Hit Rate

Another optimization we did involve improving the cache hit rate of IOSurface. An IOSurface is a bitmap image buffer we use to paint web contents into. Since creating this object is rather expensive, we have a cache of IOSurface objects based on their dimensions. We observed that the cache hit rate was rather low (~30%) so we increased the cache size from 64MB to 256MB on macOS and improved the cache hit rate by 2.7x to ~80%, improving the overall Speedometer 3.0 score by ~0.7%. In practice, this means lower latency for canvas operations and other painting operations.

Reducing Wait Time for GPU Process

Previously, we required a synchronous IPC call from the Web Process to the GPU process to determine which of the existing buffers had been released by CoreAnimation and was suitable to use for the next frame. We optimized this by having the GPUP just select (or allocate) an appropriate buffer, and direct all incoming drawing commands to the right destination without requiring any response. We also changed the delivery of any newly allocated IOSurface handles to go via a background helper thread , rather than blocking the Web Process’s main thread.

Improving Compositing

Updates to compositing layers are now batched , and flushed during rendering updates, rather than computed during every layout. This significantly reduces the cost of script-incurred layout flushes.

Improving Safari

In addition to optimizations we made in WebKit, there were a handful of optimizations for Safari as well.

Optimizing AutoFill Code

One area we looked at was Safari’s AutoFill code. Safari uses JavaScript to implement its AutoFill logic, and this execution time was showing up in the Speedometer 3.0 profile. We made this code significantly faster by waiting for the contents of the page to settle before performing some work for AutoFill. This includes coalescing handling of newly focused fields until after the page had finished loading when possible, and moving lower-priority work out of the critical path of loading and presenting the page for long-loading pages. This was responsible for ~13% progression in TodoMVC-React-Complex-DOM and ~1% progression in numerous other tests, improving the overall Speedometer 3.0 score by ~0.9%.

Profile Guided Optimizations

In addition to making the above code changes, we also adjusted our profile-guided optimizations to take Speedometer 3.0 into account. This allowed us to improve the overall Speedometer 3.0 score by 1~1.6%. It’s worth noting that we observed an intricate interaction between making code changes and profile-guided optimizations. We sometimes don’t observe an immediate improvement in the overall Speedometer 3.0 score when we eliminate, or reduce the runtime cost of a particular code path until the daily update of profile-guided optimizations kicks. This is because the modified or newly added code has to benefit from profile-guided optimizations before it can show a measurable difference. In some cases, we even observed that a performance optimization initially results in a performance degradation until the profile-guided optimizations are updated.

With all these optimizations and dozens more, we were able to improve the overall Speedometer 3.0 score by ~60% between Safari 17.0 and Safari 17.4. Even though individual progressions were often less than 1%, over time, they all stacked up together to make a big difference. Because some of these optimizations also benefited Speedometer 2.1, Safari 17.4 is also ~13% faster than Safari 17.0 on Speedometer 2.1. We’re thrilled to deliver these performance improvements to our users allowing web developers to build websites and web apps that are more responsive and snappier than ever.

Charging elephant kills an American woman on 'bucket list trip' in Zambia

An American woman who was on what she had called her "last big trip" was killed when a charging elephant flipped over the car she was traveling in at a national park in Zambia .

The “aggressive” creature buffeted the vehicle carrying six tourists and a guide, tour operator Wilderness said in a statement Tuesday. It said the 79-year-old victim died after Saturday's incident on a game drive at the Kafue National Park in western Zambia.

The company did not name the victim but Rona Wells, her daughter, identified her as Gail Mattson in a post on Facebook. She said her mother died in a “tragic accident while on her dream adventure.”

A video circulating on social media apparently showing the incident shows a large elephant running toward a car, which slows down as the animal approaches its left side. The elephant then flips the vehicle over and the passengers can be heard gasping as the car rolls over.

NBC News does not know the condition or identity of the person who filmed the video.

Photos shared online of the car, which is emblazoned with the logo of the tour operator, show it tipped onto its side after the incident, with a deep dent in two of its side doors.

Wilderness, which describes itself as a “leading conservation and hospitality company” operating in eight African countries, including Zambia, did not respond to NBC News when asked to confirm the authenticity of the video and the photos.

But the tour operator’s CEO, Keith Vincent, said in the statement that the company’s “guides are all extremely well trained and experienced.”

"Sadly in this instance the terrain and vegetation was such that the guide’s route became blocked and he could not move the vehicle out of harm’s way quickly enough,” he added.

Another woman was also injured in the incident and taken to a medical facility in South Africa, the Wilderness statement said, adding that four others were treated for minor injuries.

“It’s extremely rare to see an elephant that irate,” Marlon du Toit, a wildlife photographer and safari guide, told the “TODAY” show Thursday. “Across Africa, there are thousands and thousands of guests on safari on a daily basis with no negative consequences.”

The exact cause of Mattson’s death was unclear, but the company said her body would be repatriated to her family in the United States with the support of local Zambian authorities and the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Lusaka.

“This is a tragic event and we extend our deepest condolences to the family of the guest who died,” the statement added.

NBC News has reached out to Mattson's family for further comment.

Kafue National Park is Zambia’s largest and oldest national park, according to its website, and spans an area of more than 8,000 square miles. Vast regions of the park remain unexplored and the website says it is home to a variety of untamed wildlife.

A 'bucket list trip'

Mattson spent her winters in Sun City West, Arizona, playing bridge and cards, but during the rest of the year, she "travels all over the world," her friend Brenda Biggs told NBC News. Biggs and her husband, John Longabauth, became friends with Mattson when they moved to the area 6 ½ years ago.

Longabauth said Mattson spoke to the couple about her upcoming safari trip about two weeks ago, and called it "one of her bucket list trips." He said she was very excited for the adventure.

Before she left, she gave the couple concert tickets for a show that would happen while she was traveling, telling them to enjoy the concert and "I'll see you when I get back," Longabauth recalled of the conversation.

Biggs said Mattson, who was almost 80 years old, told her that the African safari was her "my last big trip." She said Mattson was "super excited because it was like the culmination of all the trips that she had gone on."

An avid traveler, Mattson took to trips to Europe and Asia, Longabauth recalled, noting that she might have been to South America, too.

Biggs called her friend "flamboyant," "friendly" and "fabulous" and said she loved bright colors. Mattson had taken over Biggs’ job as the event planner for their 200-member bridge club, she said.

"Gail was one of the more up people you'd ever want to meet," Longabauth said. "She was always up. She was always optimistic. She was always seeing the good side of everybody."

Yuliya Talmazan is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in London.

Rebecca Cohen is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.