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Safari's color tab bar restricted to 'Compact' view in macOS Monterey, iPadOS 15.1

After considerable pushback from developers and the public, Apple has relegated Safari's color-matching tab bar to a "Compact" tab view.

Introduced at WWDC, the color tab bar option dynamically modifies Safari's base color to match prominent hues of an active website, creating the illusion that a webpage extends to the edge of an open window. A number of users complained that the color changing option was more confusing than effective, adding bit of flash but little value to the browsing experience.

A previous beta version of macOS Monterey added a "Show color in tab bar" option, but the selection was still enabled by default. Now, with the latest version of Safari for both Monterey and iPadOS 15, the feature must be manually toggled on in the settings menu. The option is available in iPad settings when "Compact" mode is enabled and can be found on Mac by navigating to Accessibility under Advanced settings.

Jason Snell of Six Colors was first to note the change on Monday.

Apple is homing in on a final design for Safari 15 after unveiling a slate of major UI changes at WWDC. Among the most controversial alterations was a "Compact" view that relocated the tab bar to a position in line with the URL bar and standard navigation controls. The design was meant to emphasize web content by minimizing Safari's GUI, but the format — or at least Apple's proposed solution — proved unpopular with the masses.

Apple nixed the "Compact" view as Safari's default with today's release candidate and instead opted to reinstitute a more traditional tab design seen in past operating systems.

Personally, I really like the colour matching.

At this rate Safari 15.1 will be the same as Safari 14. Here's hoping; what a massive waste of time this redesign has been.

The coloured tab bar works fine like here on AI, but on some websites where the "prominent" colour is more muted, the contrast between the UI elements and the coloured tab-bar is not enough. It also makes knowing which windows (especially on iOS) are private browsing ones much less obvious. Having the selected tab darker than others is unintuitive to me too, since the active tab pretty much since the Aqua tabs on Puma has always been the brighter one. The confusion is reinforced with the Big Sur design language whereby the colour of the highlighted item doesn't "connect" to the active UI element, such as in the menu bar. The separator for the selected menu and the menu itself has always looked odd to me, and similarly the tabs look odd in Safari too. The curved edges of the tab's button makes it seem unconnected to the web view below. It's not a good design - and that's the non-compact version. The compact version is just bad throughout. At least Apple is for once giving us options, rather than shoving the change down everyone's necks.

crowley said: At this rate Safari 15.1 will be the same as Safari 14. Here's hoping; what a massive waste of time this redesign has been. I think it's fine for people who want it on compact-mode, but when CM is off it should be as it was. Same w/ iOS - the new way of swiping thru tabs is cool, but if you want to use the old way that's fine too.

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macOS Monterey and iPadOS 15.1 Release Candidates Limit Safari Color Tab Bar Option to Compact View

With the macOS Monterey and iPadOS 15 release candidates that were seeded to developers today, Apple has eliminated the option to use the Color Tab Bar with the separate tab design in Safari.

On the iPad , the option is available in the Safari section of the Settings app. Scroll down to the bottom to find it and toggle it on, and then the color tab interface will show up when the ‌iPad‌ is using the Compact Tab Bar.

On the Mac, the Show Color in Compact Tab Bar option can be toggled on in the Safari preferences under Advanced and then Accessibility.

Apple today updated macOS Monterey to change the tabs back to the original tab design, essentially undoing many of the design changes that were introduced in Safari with the initial release of the Monterey beta. As of now, the standard Big Sur design is the default, and the Compact Tab Bar is an optional change that can be toggled on.

It is not surprising that Apple has made this change as the color tab bar interface was designed for the new look in Monterey and not the older Big Sur design that Apple has now reverted to.

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Apple revives dedicated tab bar in Safari on iPad, with compact tabs now entirely optional

Safari’s compact tabs on iPad are now entirely optional, and that’s awesome news—the latest iPadOS beta now defaults to showing a separate row of tabs, just like Safari on your Mac.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS:

Apple has tweaked the new Safari in iPadOS 15 beta 4
The usual separate row of tabs is now back, turned on by default
Optionally, revert to the controversial compact tab interface
This shows Apple listens when users prove it wrong

iPadOS 15: Safari’s compact tabs vs. dedicated tab bar

The fourth beta of iPadOS 15 brings back Safari’s dedicated tab bar on iPad while making the annoying compact tab redesign entirely optional.

The separate tab bar is now the new default after installing iPadOS 15 beta 4.

A few people who grew accustomed to Apple’s terrible tab experience in prior betas can still activate Apple’s original compact tab bar that merged separate tab and URL bars together.

Apple is continuing to tweak Safari for iPadOS 15. In iPadOS 15 beta 4, the separate tab bar is back, and it's the default setting now. If you want, you can *optionally* enable the new compact tab bar in Settings. Good call. 👍 pic.twitter.com/26GNfeJSyE — Federico Viticci (@viticci) July 27, 2021

If you have the fourth beta of iPadOS 15, you can decide how your tab experience will look like.

Head to the Safari settings and you can switch between the compact tab bar from prior betas and having your tabs live in their own dedicated row from there. On macOS, the separate row of tabs was added in the third macOS Monterey beta.

→ 8 outstanding new iPad features in iPadOS 15

This is the first time Apple has made such a drastic change to Safari’s tab interface in years only to step back from it after hearing negative feedback from testers.

I would be astounded if the new Safari tab UI makes it into the final release of iPadOS or macOS. It’s not better at anything than the previous design, and it’s so much worse to use. It has all the same problems as the ‘tabs on top’ design they scrapped years ago, and then some pic.twitter.com/ftyw6dJvuT — Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) June 17, 2021

Why has Apple changed its mind regarding Safari tabs?

Apple is clearly addressing criticism that the reimagining of the Safari interface in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 is just bad design, especially in terms of usability. That being said, however, there’s still more work left to do as the updated tab interface feels a bit rough around the edges.

John Gruber, Daring Fireball :

My big problem with this tab bar—both on Mac and now iPad—is that it’s very hard to see which tab is the current (selected) tab. The visual indication for “selected” is just a very slightly different background tint—whether you’ve got “Show color in tab bar” enabled or not. You can even scroll the current tab out of view. Why is that possible? I don’t see how this is better than the Safari 14 tab bar in any way, and I see a lot of ways that it’s worse.

You can see for yourself how user-unfriendly Apple’s original vision for compact tabs and other usability changes in Safari is by watching our hands-on video, embedded ahead.

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Apple will continue testing iPadOS and other updates with its registered developers and public beta testers over the next few weeks. The updates will launch publicly sometime in the fall.

Other Safari changes in iPadOS 15 beta 4

Apple has tweaked other problematic aspects of the new Safari with iPadOS beta 4.

For example, a dedicated Reload button is now again available within Safari’s URL bar. The problem is, the button itself is inexplicably small as a touch target. The Reload command continues to also be available via Safari’s contextual menu (…) in the toolbar.

A button for Reader mode has been re-added to the URL bar in iPadOS 15 beta 4.

Unfortunately, the entire Safari Reader experience continues to be half-baked just as it is in prior betas. For starters, what’s the purpose of barely displaying a Reader button when a page loads only to have it disappear a few seconds later?

True, Reader is still available through the Share menu and by long-pressing the URL bar, but does Apple seriously expect ordinary users to figure all of this out on their own?

I really do appreciate the experimentation, but the new Safari feels like something I’d take to the UI Design Labs at WWDC and they’d push me to use native controls that users expect and already know, have better tap targets, & stop cramming too many things in a small space. https://t.co/hdlhBcOK5Z — Curtis Herbert (@parrots) July 27, 2021

Speaking of which, a Share button is now available via Safari’s tab bar in iPadOS 15 beta 4.

Overhauling Safari on iPad with Monterey-style design we got in the third macOS beta seems like a good idea, but what iPhone? That’s another area ripe for some major rethinking—as noted on Twitter , the Safari toolbar in iOS 15 beta 4 has more than half a dozen touch targets.

I think it’s fair to say there are *8* touch targets, because the left and right sides are effectively previous/next tab buttons. pic.twitter.com/QMqYkmmod3 — John Gruber (@gruber) July 27, 2021

Hey, but at least now you can long-press the URL bar to reveal the “Show Bookmarks” option.

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How to disable the colored Safari toolbar in MacOS Monterey

Apple stirred up a bit of controversy when a colored toolbar was added to the Safari browser in MacOS Monterey . Some enjoyed the change, while others were outraged enough to switch to Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or even Microsoft Edge.

How to quickly disable Safari's tab color

How to disable color without losing compact tabs, what are safari color tabs, what are compact tabs in safari, what's wrong with compact tabs, why isn't safari's color tabs option working, what you need.

Mac computer with MacOS Monterey

Thankfully, Apple made some quick adjustments to this feature, and it's currently an option that can be switched on or off to suit any preference. The change has to happen in two places, and it isn't easy to find since it is related to another feature that's new to MacOS Monterey called Compact Tabs.

It is doable, though. Here's how to disable the colored Safari toolbar in MacOS Monterey.

The quickest way to remove the color from the Safari tab bar in MacOS Monterey is to disable Compact Tabs since the color feature is only possible when this option is switched on.

Step 1: To do so, open the Safari menu in the upper left, then select Preferences to reveal options.

Step 2: Click the Tabs button at the top of the Preferences window and set the Tab layout to Separate . This will immediately disable color in both the toolbar and all tabs.

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It's also possible to disable tab and toolbar color while keeping the Compact Tabs layout. To do so, open Safari preferences , then click the Advanced button at the top of the window to see a few features that wouldn't be used by most people, plus options such as tab controls that ended up in this section for reasons unknown.

Under the* Accessibility* heading, uncheck the option labeled Show color in compact tab bar to disable color while keeping Compact Tabs. It would have made more sense to place this control in the Tabs section, but perhaps Apple was tired of hearing complaints about color and decided to tuck this option further from sight.

For many websites, everything will look the same even with this feature enabled; however, some websites have a background color or header that will be picked up by Safari and used in the toolbar and tab area.

The idea is to give the page a more complete and stylish look. It's also an instant reminder of what website is being viewed. While it's an interesting and useful feature, it's better to have the option to try it rather than being forced to use color tabs.

Compact Tabs are an interesting way to save vertical space in the browser window. This is particularly important when using a MacBook where screen height is limited . This is true of most laptops due to a wider aspect ratio than a standard computer monitor.

Compact Tabs free up a little more room for viewing websites by combining the toolbar and the tab bar into a single line. Compact Tabs are also the only way to see a website's color in the tab bar and toolbar.

The most significant drawback to using Safari's Compact Tabs option is reducing the amount of space available for tabs. That means with several tabs open, it becomes harder to find a particular one. It also requires more precise mousing to select the right tab. Given the tendency for open tabs to grow into the dozens or more, this is an unfortunate side effect of an otherwise nice feature.

One way to help reduce the number of tabs open at once is to use Safari Tab Groups , which were introduced at the same time. This is a way to make collections of related tabs while narrowing the current tabs to the topic of interest at the moment. Combining Compact Tabs with Tab Groups makes this a nice solution and provides more vertical space.

In most cases, MacOS Monterey automatically decides when to use color or the system default, even if the color tabs feature is enabled. That means a large number of the websites visited won't change the tab bar color. Instead, the toolbar and tab bar will be light gray or dark gray depending on whether Dark mode is enabled.

Website developers do have a way to control this behavior, however. There's an HTML meta tag named "theme-color" that can be used to set the color used by browsers that support theming and have the feature enabled. MacOS Monterey and the Safari browser will honor this setting if Compact Tabs and color tabs are both enabled in Preferences.

The arrival of a colored toolbar for Safari in MacOS Monterey was a controversial feature. While it brings some liveliness to web tabs, the requirement of also using Compact Tabs makes it less useful than it might have been, reducing space in what can often be a very cramped tab bar. Using this feature along with Tab Groups helps alleviate this problem but requires a degree of organization that might feel unnatural when browsing the web casually. It's good that Apple made this an optional feature that can be disabled with just a few clicks.

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Tips & Tricks

Troubleshooting, how to turn off tab bar colors in safari for mac.

The latest versions of Safari on Mac apply a color tint effect to the tab toolbar. This shifts the browser window towards the color of the webpage in view, giving it a sort of transparent look. The color effect applies to the area of the search / URL bar, back/forward buttons, tabs, bookmark buttons, and the entire general top of a Safari window on a Mac.

Sometimes the Safari tab bar coloring can be extremely garish or just distracting, but if you’re not a fan of the appearance, you can disable the Safari tab color effect easily in Safari for Mac.

How to Disable Color Effect in Tab Bar on Safari for Mac

This feature only exists in Safari 15 and later, here’s how you can turn it off:

Open Safari on the Mac if you haven’t done so already, then pull down the “Safari” menu and choose “Preferences”
Choose “Tabs”
Uncheck the box for “Show color in tab bar”

The transparent/color tab bar effect will immediately turn off, and Safari will look more like it did in prior versions, before the color tinting feature was standard.

Note this color feature is Safari specific, and though it mimics similar appearance to the general system-wide transparency effects on the Mac, it’s actually a separate setting.

If for whatever reason you want to turn the color tab bar / toolbar effect back on, you can simply repeat the steps above and toggle the box for “Show color in tab bar” on again.

This obviously applies to modern versions of Safari on the Mac, but you can also disable the color toolbar tinting effect in Safari for iPhone and iPad too, which is also the default appearance in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 or later. Safari for iOS received some other major changes as well, like putting the search bar on the bottom of the screen, but that can be reverted back to the old design if iPhone users aren’t a fan of that change too.

Directly Changing the Safari Theme Color via HTML

For the web developers and geekier folks, you may be wondering “how do I change the Safari tab theme color directly?” and it turns out you can do that through a new HTML “theme-color” meta tag recognized by Safari. This is placed within the page header, like so:

You can use also specify the coloration for dark and light mode themes independently by replacing “#fff” and “#000” with your colors of choice for the light and dark themes, respectively.

Do you have any particular opinions or thoughts on the coloring effect of the Safari tab/toolbar/search bar on the Mac? Did you disable this feature or leave it on?

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This preference does not exist in the BigSur version of Safari 15. (and presumably not the Catalina version either) You can only disable tab colors in Monterey which is still in Beta.

You can disable Tab Colors in Safari 15 on Monterey, Big Sur, or Catalina. If you do not see the preference setting in Safari for macOS then it is not Safari 15.

I have Safari 15.1 with Monterey 12.0.1 and still no preference for disabling tab colors is Safari. I don’t understand this… And my tabs in the tab bar are not rounded and there are no space between them.

It’s the same for me too. Safari 15.1 and Monterey 12.0.1, and the preference is nowhere to be seen.

Also, I don’t think it’s turned on for me, as I haven’t come across any websites with the feature (I actually came here looking for how to turn it on). I’m building a website with the theme-color meta tag, but it’s not doing anything.

However, my tabs are rounded and spaced out.

Whoever wrote the article must be referring to iOS devices. I’m using the latest (Aug 18/22) Safari on Catalina.

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How to change Safari 15's design back to normal in Mac OS Monterey

Compact or separate?

When Apple launched the public beta of Mac OS 12 Monterey at its Worldwide Developers Conference, one of their most controversial design choices was to change the look of Safari.

It’s fair to say that this was not met with universal acclaim , and Apple very quietly gave users the option to revert back to a more familiar look to the browser.

For the full release of Monterey, Apple gives users both options. In this article, we’ll run you through the differences between the two designs, and explain what you need to do to change Safari 15’s design from one to the other.

The Compact view

We’ll start by looking at the new look Apple added to Safari 15, which is described as the ‘Compact’ view. This was the look that was rolled out during the beta trial period, and the look which garnered so much criticism from users.

The change is concerned almost exclusively with the layout of the tabs and the URL box. Instead of having a standalone URL box, the active page tab becomes the URL box. The thinking behind this was apparently to reduce the amount of space needed for the tabs and the URL box, allowing more space for the website itself. In most cases, however, the amount of space being saved didn’t make much of an impact on the look of a page.

An additional feature of the Compact view is something called “Show Colour on Compact Tab Bar”. This feature will modify the base color of Safari, to try and match the dominant tones of the website you are browsing. This is intended to make the tabs blend in more, creating the illusion of a full-screen webpage.

There was a lot of disquiet from beta testers about these changes. So Apple has made sure to include another display option on Safari. We’ll look at that next.

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The Separate view

The ‘Separate’ view is what most of us would consider the traditional layout of Safari. The URL bar is separate and sits above the Tab bar. Essentially, this is the same layout as you would have been accustomed to when using Big Sur. The color tab bar option is not available either.

For most users, this familiar setup will work just fine, and there is an element of the if-it-isn’t-broken-then-don’t-fix-it about all of this. However, there will be others who believe the Compact layout suits them better. Whichever category you fall into, the good news is that switching from one format to the other is simple.

How to change Safari’s design in Mac OS Monterey

If you do want to switch from one Safari design to the other, here’s what you need to do:

Open your Safari menu and click on Preferences
From this menu, navigate to Tabs
You then have the option to select Compact or Separate. Click on whichever one you want, in order to select it.

If you want the Compact layout, you can also decide whether or not to have ‘Show Colour in Compact Tab Bar’ active or not. It is automatically activated on the Compact layout by default. If you want to turn it off (or back on again):

In the same Preferences menu as above, go to Advanced
Under Accessibility, toggle the third tick box marked ‘Show Colour in Compact Tab Bar.'

Switching between the two Safari designs on Mac OS Monterey is really simple, regardless of which layout works best for you.

How to manage your tabs in Safari 15

Steven Shaw is a full-time freelancer, but before his change of career at the start of 2021, he was in the retail industry, leading teams to achieve goals in selling technology products, such as smart phones, tablets and more.

Graduating from the University of Cambridge with a Masters in Medieval History, he's always had a passion for the topic, alongside technology, and many Simpsons quotes.

You'll find him on TechRadar mainly helping out the Software & Downloads section, offering his knowledge of macOS, Windows and more, from the systems that he's sold and showcased for many years in his previous life.

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How to stop Safari from changing colors in iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and macOS 12

Safari wants to change colors like a chameleon — you can stop it

How to stop Safari from changing colors iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and macOS 12

Safari in Apple iOS 15 , iPadOS 15 and macOS 12 feels like a whole new browser in a lot of ways. And while I like Tab Groups, there's one feature that I immediately didn't really enjoy and wanted to disable. And fortunately, that's very easy to do.

This new feature changes the color of the interface around the tabs, bookmark and navigation button areas in Safari, to match the color of the website you're using. Sometimes this change doesn't bother me, such as when Safari goes black while I'm reading a CNN article, but when it takes on a color like blue (seen above for CNBC, or on TweetDeck), it's a bit jarring to my eye.

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The intent is clearly to immerse the reader in the site's aesthetic, but I'd rather that site pop off the neutral shade like it did in past versions. That might sound awesome to you. But if it doesn't, read on. And don't be ashamed. It's normal to not like change. I just wish some other Safari changes were equally configurable, as it doesn't make sense that the Reload button is now hidden in iPadOS.

And so I figured out how to change this setting in all three of the operating systems. Fortunately, it's the exact same in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, and macOS 15 is only slightly different.

How to stop Safari from changing colors in macOS 12

How to stop Safari from changing color on macOS step 1: click Safari in Menu bar

1. Click Safari in the Menu bar. Of course, you'll need to have Safari open for this.

2. Click Preferences.

3. Click Advanced.

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4. Uncheck "Show color in tab bar."

How to stop Safari from changing color on macOS: done!

How to stop Safari from changing colors in iOS 15

According to my colleague Philip Michaels, who wrote our hands-on iOS 15 beta review, Safari's color-changing nature isn't a big a deal on the iPhone. Specifically, he told me "to be very honest, I do not notice it at all," as he's too busy being confused by the Safari iOS tab bar moving to the bottom of the screen .

That might be because iOS gives the tab bar much less space than macOS and iPadOS do. That said, here's how to disable it outright.

1. Open Settings and tap Safari.

How to stop Safari from changing colors on iOS step 2: turn off Show Color in tab bar

2. Turn "Show Color in Tab Bar" off.

How to stop Safari from changing colors in iPadOS 15

Here, the difference is a little more pronounced, as you'll notice in the above TweetDeck screenshot. That big blue section is what temporarily appears when you pull a web page down to reload it.

1. Open Settings.

How to stop Safari from changing color on iPadOS step 2: select Safari

2. Tap Safari.

How to stop Safari from changing color on iPadOS step 3: turn off show color in tab bar

3. Turn "Show Color in Tab Bar" off.

There, now you know how to stop Safari for changing its color to match websites, on every new Apple OS.

Read next: Check out our hands-on iOS 15 beta review
How to use Live Text in iOS 15

Henry is a managing editor at Tom’s Guide covering streaming media, laptops and all things Apple, reviewing devices and services for the past seven years. Prior to joining Tom's Guide, he reviewed software and hardware for TechRadar Pro, and interviewed artists for Patek Philippe International Magazine. He's also covered the wild world of professional wrestling for Cageside Seats, interviewing athletes and other industry veterans.

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iPad User Guide

iPad models compatible with iPadOS 17
iPad mini (5th generation)
iPad mini (6th generation)
iPad (6th generation)
iPad (7th generation)
iPad (8th generation)
iPad (9th generation)
iPad (10th generation)
iPad Air (3rd generation)
iPad Air (4th generation)
iPad Air (5th generation)
iPad Pro 10.5-inch
iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation)
iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation)
iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation)
iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation)
iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation)
iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation)
iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation)
iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th generation)
iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation)
Setup basics
Make your iPad your own
Keep in touch with friends and family
Customize your workspace
Do more with Apple Pencil
Customize iPad for your child
What’s new in iPadOS 17
Turn on and set up iPad
Wake and unlock
Set up cellular service
Connect to the internet
Sign in with Apple ID
Subscribe to iCloud+
Find settings
Set up mail, contacts, and calendar accounts
Learn the meaning of the status icons
Charge the battery
Show the battery percentage
Check battery usage
Use Low Power Mode to save battery life
Read and bookmark the user guide
Learn basic gestures
Learn advanced gestures
Adjust the volume
Find your apps in App Library
Switch between apps
Zoom an app to fill the screen
Quit and reopen an app
Drag and drop
Open two items in Split View
Switch an app window to Slide Over
View an app’s windows and workspaces
Multitask with Picture in Picture
Move, resize, and organize windows
Access features from the Lock Screen
Perform quick actions
Search on iPad
Get information about your iPad
View or change cellular data settings
Travel with iPad
Change or turn off sounds
Create a custom Lock Screen
Change the wallpaper
Adjust the screen brightness and color balance
Customize the text size and zoom setting
Change the name of your iPad
Change the date and time
Change the language and region
Organize your apps in folders
Add, edit, and remove widgets
Move apps and widgets on the Home Screen
Remove apps
Use and customize Control Center
Change or lock the screen orientation
View and respond to notifications
Change notification settings
Set up a focus
Allow or silence notifications for a Focus
Turn a Focus on or off
Customize sharing options
Type with the onscreen keyboard
Dictate text
Move the onscreen keyboard
Select and edit text
Use predictive text
Use text replacements
Add or change keyboards
Add emoji and stickers
Take a screenshot
Take a screen recording
Write and draw in documents
Add text, shapes, signatures, and more
Fill out forms and sign documents
Use Live Text to interact with content in a photo or video
Use Visual Look Up to identify objects in your photos and videos
Lift a subject from the photo background
Subscribe to Apple Arcade
Play with friends in Game Center
Connect a game controller
Use App Clips
Update apps
View or cancel subscriptions
Manage purchases, settings, and restrictions
Install and manage fonts
Buy books and audiobooks
Annotate books
Access books on other Apple devices
Listen to audiobooks
Set reading goals
Organize books
Create and edit events in Calendar
Send invitations
Reply to invitations
Change how you view events
Search for events
Change calendar and event settings
Schedule or display events in a different time zone
Keep track of events
Use multiple calendars
Use the Holidays calendar
Share iCloud calendars
Take photos
Take a selfie
Take a Portrait mode selfie
Take videos
Change advanced camera settings
Adjust HDR camera settings
View, share, and print photos
Use Live Text
Scan a QR code
See the world clock
Set an alarm
Use the stopwatch
Use multiple timers
Add and use contact information
Edit contacts
Add your contact info
Send Contacts on iPad
Use other contact accounts
Hide duplicate contacts
Export contacts
Get started with FaceTime
Make FaceTime calls
Receive FaceTime calls
Create a FaceTime link
Take a Live Photo
Turn on Live Captions
Use other apps during a call
Make a Group FaceTime call
View participants in a grid
Use SharePlay to watch, listen, and play together
Share your screen in a FaceTime call
Collaborate on a document in a FaceTime call
Use video conferencing features
Hand off a FaceTime call to another Apple device
Change the FaceTime video settings
Change the FaceTime audio settings
Change your appearance
Leave a call or switch to Messages
Block unwanted callers
Report a call as spam
Connect external devices or servers
Modify files, folders, and downloads
Search for files and folders
Organize files and folders
Set up iCloud Drive
Share files and folders in iCloud Drive
Share your location
Add or remove a friend
Locate a friend
Get notified when friends change their location
Notify a friend when your location changes
Add your iPad
Get notified if you leave a device behind
Locate a device
Mark a device as lost
Erase a device
Remove a device
Add an AirTag
Share an AirTag or other item in Find My on iPad
Add a third-party item
Get notified if you leave an item behind
Locate an item
Mark an item as lost
Remove an item
Adjust map settings
Get started with Freeform
Create a Freeform board
Draw or handwrite
Apply consistent styles
Position items on a board
Search Freeform boards
Share and collaborate
Delete and recover boards
Get started with Health
Fill out your Health Details
Intro to Health data
View your health data
Share your health data
View health data shared by others
Download health records
View health records
Log menstrual cycle information
View menstrual cycle predictions and history
Track your medications
Learn more about your medications
Log your state of mind
Take a mental health assessment
Customize your Sleep Focus
Turn Sleep Focus on or off
View your sleep history
Check your headphone audio levels
Use audiogram data
Back up your Health data
Intro to Home
Upgrade to the new Home architecture
Set up accessories
Control accessories
Control your home using Siri
Use Grid Forecast to plan your energy usage
Set up HomePod
Control your home remotely
Create and use scenes
Use automations
Set up security cameras
Use Face Recognition
Configure a router
Invite others to control accessories
Add more homes
Get music, movies, and TV shows
Get ringtones
Manage purchases and settings
Magnify nearby objects
Change settings
Detect people around you
Detect doors around you
Receive image descriptions of your surroundings
Read aloud text and labels around you
Set up shortcuts for Detection Mode
Add and remove email accounts
Set up a custom email domain
Check your email
Unsend email with Undo send
Reply to and forward emails
Save an email draft
Add email attachments
Download email attachments
Annotate email attachments
Set email notifications
Search for email
Organize your email in mailboxes
Flag or block emails
Filter emails
Use Hide My Email
Use Mail Privacy Protection
Change email settings
Delete and recover emails
Add a Mail widget to your Home Screen
Print emails
Use keyboard shortcuts
Get travel directions
Select other route options
Find stops along your route
View a route overview or a list of turns
Change settings for spoken directions
Get driving directions
Report traffic incidents
Get cycling directions
Get walking directions
Get transit directions
Delete recent directions
Get traffic and weather info
Predict travel time and ETA
Download offline maps
Search for places
Find nearby attractions, restaurants, and services
Get information about places
Mark places
Share places
Rate places
Save favorite places
Explore new places with Guides
Organize places in My Guides
Delete significant locations
Look around places
Take Flyover tours
Find your Maps settings
Measure dimensions
View and save measurements
Measure a person’s height
Set up Messages
About iMessage
Send and reply to messages
Unsend and edit messages
Keep track of messages
Forward and share messages
Group conversations
Watch, listen, or play together using SharePlay
Collaborate on projects
Use iMessage apps
Take and edit photos or videos
Share photos, links, and more
Send stickers
Request, send, and receive payments
Send and receive audio messages
Animate messages
Change notifications
Block, filter, and report messages
Delete messages and attachments
Recover deleted messages
View albums, playlists, and more
Show song credits and lyrics
Queue up your music
Listen to broadcast radio
Subscribe to Apple Music
Listen to lossless music
Listen to Dolby Atmos music
Apple Music Sing
Find new music
Add music and listen offline
Get personalized recommendations
Listen to radio
Search for music
Create playlists
See what your friends are listening to
Use Siri to play music
Change the way music sounds
Get started with News
Use News widgets
See news stories chosen just for you
Read stories
Follow your favorite teams with My Sports
Subscribe to Apple News+
Browse and read Apple News+ stories and issues
Download Apple News+ issues
Solve crossword puzzles
Search for news stories
Save stories in News for later
Subscribe to individual news channels
Get started with Notes
Add or remove accounts
Create and format notes
Draw or write
Add photos, videos, and more
Scan text and documents
Work with PDFs
Create Quick Notes
Search notes
Organize in folders
Organize with tags
Use Smart Folders
Export or print notes
Change Notes settings
Delete, share, or copy a photo
View and edit Photo Booth photos in the Photos app
View photos and videos
Play videos and slideshows
Delete or hide photos and videos
Edit photos and videos
Trim video length and adjust slow motion
Edit Live Photos
Edit Cinematic videos
Edit portraits
Use photo albums
Edit, share, and organize albums
Filter and sort photos and videos in albums
Make stickers from your photos
Duplicate and copy photos and videos
Merge duplicate photos
Search for photos
Identify people and pets
Browse photos by location
Share photos and videos
Share long videos
View photos and videos shared with you
Watch memories
Personalize your memories
Manage memories and featured photos
Use iCloud Photos
Create shared albums
Add and remove people in a shared album
Add and delete photos and videos in a shared album
Set up or join an iCloud Shared Photo Library
Add content to an iCloud Shared Photo Library
Use iCloud Shared Photo Library
Import and export photos and videos
Print photos
Find podcasts
Listen to podcasts
Follow your favorite podcasts
Use the Podcasts widget
Organize your podcast library
Download, save, and share podcasts
Subscribe to podcasts
Listen to subscriber-only content
Change download settings
Make a grocery list
Add items to a list
Edit and manage a list
Search and organize lists
Work with templates
Use Smart Lists
Print reminders
Use the Reminders widget
Change Reminders settings
Browse the web
Search for websites
Customize your Safari settings
Change the layout
Use Safari profiles
Open and close tabs
Organize your tabs with Tab Groups
View your tabs from another device
Share Tab Groups
Use Siri to listen to a webpage
Bookmark a website
Bookmark a website as a favorite
Save pages to a Reading List
Find links shared with you
Annotate and save a webpage as a PDF
Automatically fill in forms
Get extensions
Hide ads and distractions
Clear your cache
Browse the web privately
Use passkeys in Safari
Check stocks
Manage multiple watchlists
Read business news
Add earnings reports to your calendar
Use a Stocks widget
Translate text, voice, and conversations
Translate text in apps
Translate with the camera view
Subscribe to Apple TV+, MLS Season Pass, or an Apple TV channel
Add your TV provider
Get shows, movies, and more
Watch sports
Watch Major League Soccer with MLS Season Pass
Watch multiple live sports streams
Control playback
Manage your library
Change the settings
Make a recording
Play it back
Edit or delete a recording
Keep recordings up to date
Organize recordings
Search for or rename a recording
Share a recording
Duplicate a recording
Check the weather
Check the weather in other locations
View weather maps
Manage weather notifications
Use Weather widgets
Learn the weather icons
Find out what Siri can do
Tell Siri about yourself
Have Siri announce calls and notifications
Add Siri Shortcuts
About Siri Suggestions
Change Siri settings
Set up Family Sharing
Add Family Sharing members
Remove Family Sharing members
Share subscriptions
Share purchases
Share locations with family and locate lost devices
Set up Apple Cash Family and Apple Card Family
Set up parental controls
Set up a child’s device
Get started with Screen Time
Protect your vision health with Screen Distance
Set up Screen Time for yourself
Set communication and safety limits and block inappropriate content
Set up Screen Time for a family member
Set up Apple Pay
Use Apple Pay in apps and on the web
Track your orders
Use Apple Cash
Use Apple Card
Use Savings
Manage payment cards and activity
Power adapter and charge cable
Use AirPods
Use EarPods
Use headphone audio-level features
Apple Pencil compatibility
Pair and charge Apple Pencil (1st generation)
Pair and charge Apple Pencil (2nd generation)
Pair and charge Apple Pencil (USB-C)
Enter text with Scribble
Draw with Apple Pencil
Take and mark up a screenshot with Apple Pencil
Quickly write notes
Preview tools and controls with Apple Pencil hover
Wirelessly stream videos and photos to Apple TV or a smart TV
Connect to a display with a cable
HomePod and other wireless speakers
iPad keyboards
Switch between keyboards
Enter characters with diacritical marks
Use shortcuts
Choose an alternative keyboard layout
Change typing assistance options
Connect Magic Trackpad
Trackpad gestures
Change trackpad settings
Connect a mouse
Mouse actions and gestures
Change mouse settings
External storage devices
Bluetooth accessories
Apple Watch with Fitness+
Share your internet connection
Make and receive phone calls
Use iPad as a second display for Mac
Use iPad as a webcam
Use a keyboard and mouse or trackpad across your Mac and iPad
Hand off tasks between devices
Cut, copy, and paste between iPad and other devices
Stream video or mirror the screen of your iPad
Use AirDrop to send items
Connect iPad and your computer with a cable
Transfer files between devices
Transfer files with email, messages, or AirDrop
Transfer files or sync content with the Finder or iTunes
Automatically keep files up to date with iCloud
Use an external storage device, a file server, or a cloud storage service
Get started with accessibility features
Turn on accessibility features for setup
Change Siri accessibility settings
Open features with Accessibility Shortcut
Enlarge text by hovering
Change color and brightness
Make text easier to read
Reduce onscreen motion
Customize per-app visual settings
Hear what’s on the screen or typed
Hear audio descriptions
Turn on and practice VoiceOver
Change your VoiceOver settings
Use VoiceOver gestures
Operate iPad when VoiceOver is on
Control VoiceOver using the rotor
Use the onscreen keyboard
Write with your finger
Use VoiceOver with an Apple external keyboard
Use a braille display
Type braille on the screen
Customize gestures and keyboard shortcuts
Use VoiceOver with a pointer device
Use VoiceOver for images and videos
Use VoiceOver in apps
Use AssistiveTouch
Use an eye-tracking device
Adjust how iPad responds to your touch
Auto-answer calls
Change Face ID and attention settings
Use Voice Control
Adjust the top or Home button
Use Apple TV Remote buttons
Adjust pointer settings
Adjust keyboard settings
Adjust AirPods settings
Adjust Apple Pencil settings
Control a nearby Apple device
Intro to Switch Control
Set up and turn on Switch Control
Select items, perform actions, and more
Control several devices with one switch
Use hearing devices
Use Live Listen
Use sound recognition
Set up and use RTT
Flash the LED for alerts
Adjust audio settings
Play background sounds
Display subtitles and captions
Show transcriptions for Intercom messages
Get Live Captions (beta)
Type to speak
Record a Personal Voice
Use Guided Access
Use built-in privacy and security protections
Set a passcode
Set up Face ID
Set up Touch ID
Control access to information on the Lock Screen
Keep your Apple ID secure
Use passkeys to sign in to apps and websites
Sign in with Apple
Share passwords
Automatically fill in strong passwords
Change weak or compromised passwords
View your passwords and related information
Share passkeys and passwords securely with AirDrop
Make your passkeys and passwords available on all your devices
Automatically fill in verification codes
Sign in with fewer CAPTCHA challenges
Two-factor authentication
Use security keys
Control app tracking permissions
Control the location information you share
Control access to information in apps
Control how Apple delivers advertising to you
Control access to hardware features
Create and manage Hide My Email addresses
Protect your web browsing with iCloud Private Relay
Use a private network address
Use Advanced Data Protection
Use Lockdown Mode
Receive warnings about sensitive content
Use Contact Key Verification
Turn iPad on or off
Force restart iPad
Update iPadOS
Back up iPad
Return iPad settings to their defaults
Restore all content from a backup
Restore purchased and deleted items
Sell, give away, or trade in your iPad
Install or remove configuration profiles
Important safety information
Important handling information
Find more resources for software and service
FCC compliance statement
ISED Canada compliance statement
Apple and the environment
Class 1 Laser information
Disposal and recycling information
Unauthorized modification of iPadOS
ENERGY STAR compliance statement

Change the layout in Safari on iPad

Select either Separate Tab Bar or Compact Tab Bar.

You can move between layouts as much as you want without losing the tabs you have open.

Note: If you’re using the Compact Tab Bar layout, the menus and layout may look different from what’s described in this guide.

The Safari section of the Settings app. Below Tabs are the Separate Tab Bar and Compact Tab Bar options.

How-To Geek

How to try the new safari tab bar on ipad.

Go ahead, live life on the edge!

In iPadOS 15 , Apple left the new Safari tab bar design turned off by default, but it's already installed when you upgrade to iPadOS 15 or later. If you'd like to experiment with the new "compact" tab bar design, it's easy to enable in Settings. Here's how.

First, open Settings by tapping the grey gear icon.

In Settings, tap "Safari" in the sidebar.

In Safari settings, navigate to the "Tabs" section, then select "Compact Tab Bar" until it has a check mark below it.

Next, launch Safari and open several websites at once. Previously, with "Separate Tab Bar" selected, you'd see a dedicated tab bar just below the address toolbar. Now, with "Compact Tab Bar" selected, the toolbar at the top of the screen takes up less space. That's because the tab bar has merged into the address bar.

To see or edit the current URL address while in "Compact Tab Bar Mode," tap the current tab button, and it will expand into an address bar. To open a new search box to type in a search term or a new web address, tap the plus ("+") button in the right side of the tab bar.

If you change your mind and want to go back to the old tab bar style, just open Settings again and navigate to Safari, then select "Separate Tab Bar" in the Tabs section. You can make a similar change on the iPhone if you're not happy with the new Safari design in iOS 15. Happy browsing!

Related: How to Get the Old Safari Back on iPhone

How to switch to compact tabs on Safari

Compact tabs can simplify the Safari browsing experience

Most Mac owners understand the simplicity and convenience of using Safari to search the web. Its seamless design makes it all too easy to surf the internet for hours. Unfortunately, the one fatal flaw of this exceptional browser is its bulky tabs. In just minutes of opening a MacBook , someone might find themself drowning in tabs overpopulating their screen. Luckily, Safari’s compact tab function makes this problem a quick fix.

Switching to compact tabs on Safari has many advantages. By compacting tabs together, it is significantly easier to find the important ones. In addition, the compact tabs are more appealing to look at than normal ones. For users who have the habit of keeping dozens of tabs open at the same time, the compact tab feature will save them hours of wasted time clicking to find the right page.

There is no need to begin a wild goose chase looking for this amazing feature; fortunately, Safari has also made it easy to activate. There are no complicated steps or coding needed to start using it, just a few quick clicks.

How to use Safari’s compact tabs

1. Open the Safari browser .

2. Open Safari’s Preferences settings window by right-clicking Safari on the top-left corner of the menu bar.

3. From the context menu shown, select Preferences . Alternatively, press Command+ on your keyboard.

4. Next, click Tabs on the navigation menu at the top of the window. This will open the settings available for your tabs.

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5. Under Tab layout, select Compact from the options available. Your tabs will now collapse into small icons when not active. The active tab will still have its full page name shown.

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Hot New Features in Safari in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15

iOS 15 has brought some of the most significant revisions to Safari since the iPhone’s introduction. The address bar is on the bottom! Where’s Private Browsing? What are Tab Groups? Why does the color of the top of the screen keep changing?

Let’s walk through the major new changes, see if we can help you make sense of them, and show how to turn some of them off. I cover these and many other new iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 features in Take Control of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 .

Safari Upside Down

When iOS 15 came out, people were suddenly baffled by the fact that Safari seemed to be upside down.

Earlier betas of iOS 15 boasted an even more radical design that concealed many common functions. The first betas hid the refresh, share, and tab buttons entirely. The screenshots below come from a later beta, where Apple was still trying to cram more controls into the tab itself. I shudder to think of the response if Apple had shipped that design.

Thankfully, after a litany of complaints from beta testers, Apple dialed things back to a more familiar interface. Just upside down.

Apple made this switch for good reasons. Prior to the iPhone 6, iPhones were much shorter, and most people’s thumbs could easily reach the top of the screen. During that time, Apple even made this a selling point against then-enormous Android phones with its “thumb” TV ad . (Ah, for the days when “common sense” suggested screens could match the size of most people’s hands.)

Over the years, iPhones have become ever taller. Even people with large hands have to really stretch to reach the top of the screen, where Safari’s address bar was. To address that concern ( Reachability doesn’t seem to be a huge hit), Apple converted it to a “tab bar” and moved it to the bottom of the screen, where everyone can easily reach it. Tap it to enter a URL or search term, just as you would have in the old address bar.

The bottom-mounted tab bar features another nice touch: you can now swipe left or right to switch between tabs quickly. Along with tapping the tab button in the lower-right corner, you can also swipe up on the tab bar to reveal all tabs, although that gesture is a little tricky on a Face ID-enabled iPhone since you have to start just above where you’d normally swipe up to return to the Home screen.

Although the new position makes sense and feels actively easier to use, it does require that you rewire your muscle memory. If that proves too difficult or you prefer the old approach, you can switch back. Go to Settings > Safari, scroll down to Tabs and select Single Tab.

Safari setting for putting the Tab Bar back on top

However, I encourage you to try the new way for a few days, since it’s easier to use and less RSI-provoking once you get used to it.

Safari’s Rainbow

There’s another tab-related setting in Settings > Safari that you might want to disable to revert to previous behavior. As you may have noticed in the screenshot at the top of this article, Safari on the iPhone colorizes the status bar area at the top of the screen in an attempt to match the “color” of the site. I quote “color” because it often picks up an accent or logo color—it doesn’t necessarily take its cue from the main site background color.

As a result, loading the TidBITS site turns the status bar a deep purple and keeps it that way even if you scroll down (below left). If you don’t like the effect, you can disable Allow Website Tinting and return the status bar to a translucent overlay (below right).

(We’ve since changed our meta theme-color to white to remove the purple bar in Safari when viewing the TidBITS website.)

Safari in iPadOS 15 didn’t see as radical a redesign as Safari in iOS 15, but it doubles down on this color change approach. Where Safari in iOS changes just the relatively small status bar area, Safari in iPadOS turns its entire tab bar the dominant color of whatever website you visit. The idea is to make it easier to figure out which site you’re viewing as you switch between tabs.

You may not find it helpful because there’s no predicting what color any given site will be. It can also be a rather glaring effect. Worse, it’s logically confusing, since not all of the controls in the tab bar are associated with the current site, so it makes no sense to connect them by color.

As with the iOS version of Safari, you can revert to a calm gray tab bar if you prefer. Go to Settings > Safari and turn off Show Color in Tab Bar.

Compact Tab Bar in iPadOS 15

If you want a look at Apple’s original concept for Safari’s tab bar in iPadOS 15, go to Settings > Safari, and under Tabs, select Compact Tab Bar.

It combines tabs with the address bar to save screen real estate. I find it cluttered and bewildering, so I’m glad it’s not the default.

You might wonder where the back and forward arrows have gone—they only appear when there’s a page to which you can tap them to navigate. Even more confusingly, there’s no obvious way to view all open tabs. You have to open the sidebar and tap the tab icon to the right of the number of tabs—tapping the text isn’t sufficient.

The tab switcher in Safari iPad's sidebar

Voice Search

Apple has a mixed record with dictation and voice recognition, but Safari’s new voice search feature is incredible. Tap in the address bar, tap the microphone icon, speak a search query, and Safari will search using your default search engine. There’s no need to tap Go or anything else—the search activates as soon as you stop speaking.

In some but not all cases, a voice search may take you directly to a particular site. If that’s desirable, you can ensure that it navigates directly to a site by saying its URL, as in “tidbits dot com” or even “talk dot tidbits dot com.” We anticipate using this feature heavily.

Safari 15 on the Mac doesn’t include the voice search button, which is a crying shame.

Tab Groups and Private Browsing

Another high-profile new feature in Safari is Tab Groups, which lets you create and switch among collections of tabs. The idea behind Tab Groups is to help solve the problem so many of us have: having hundreds of unrelated tabs open at once.

You can make as many groups of tabs as you like. You could have one tab group for your work, another for an upcoming trip, and a third for research for something you’re looking to buy.

To work with tab groups, first open the tab switcher by tapping the tab icon or (if your tab bar is on the bottom) swiping up on the tab bar. Tap X Tabs, where X is how many tabs you have open, to reveal the Tab Groups menu. Then:

To create a new tab group, tap New Empty Tab Group, give it a name, and tap Save. You can also tap New Tab Group from X Tabs to create a tab group from the tabs you currently have open.
To switch to a different tab group, tap it in the Tab Groups menu.
To delete a tab group, swipe left on it to reveal a delete icon.

If you regularly use Private Browsing to prevent Safari from remembering anything about your browsing session, note that you now access it like any other tab group—it’s called Private in the Tab Groups menu.

The Tag Group interface is similar on the iPad, though the tab icon has changed to better represent the tab switcher interface there. You can also access Tab Groups from the sidebar.

Personally, I find Tab Groups a bit confusing, at least on the iPhone, since I often switch between projects and don’t remember to switch to the appropriate tab group first. Then I lose track of even more tabs than I used to because they’re tucked away in some other tab group. Tab groups do sync among your Apple devices, so it’s possible that they would work better for me if I browsed with Safari on the Mac (see “ Safari 15 ,” 21 September 2021), which adds Tab Groups to Safari in macOS 11 Big Sur and 10.15 Catalina).

Another nice new change in iOS 15 is that Safari now formats its tab switcher as a grid instead of a card stack, just like on the iPad. The grid makes it much easier to see which tabs are open, plus you can press and hold a tab to move it around. You can swipe tabs to the left to close them or tap the somewhat obscured X button, which Apple oddly put in the upper-right corner like Windows. It would have made more sense to mimic the offset upper-left corner approach used when deleting apps in the App Library.

Old Safari tab stack vs the new tab grid

Want to close all open tabs so you can start fresh with Tab Groups? Press and hold the Done text label to reveal the secret option. Why Apple hid it there is baffling, and there’s zero indication that “Done” would have any secondary function.

Shared with You

Have you ever dug through a Messages thread trying to find an article someone sent you? Shared with You, a new feature in some of Apple’s built-in apps, corrals these links so you can access them all in one place.

On both iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, you can get to Shared with You from Safari’s start page, which you see whenever you create a new tab or tap in the tab bar. (You may have to scroll down to see it, under the Favorites and Frequently Visited collections.) Tap Show All next to Shared with You to see all the links. On the iPad, you can also find Shared with You in the sidebar. (At least in theory—it doesn’t appear on Adam’s iPad Pro running iPadOS 15, even after I explicitly sent him a link that does appear in Shared with You on his iPhone 11 Pro running iOS 15.)

Other Features

Those are the most significant new features, but Apple also added some smaller features that are less likely to impact your everyday usage:

Customizable start page: I describe how to edit the start page in detail in Take Control of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 , but in short: create a new tab, scroll down to the bottom of the start page, and tap the Edit button.
Pull to refresh: Loren Brichter introduced the pull-to-refresh gesture in Tweetie over a decade ago, and it has become a standard iOS convention since, used even in some Apple apps. Apple has finally integrated it into Safari. When you’re at the top of a Web page, pull down on the page to reload it. This gesture is why Apple initially hid the refresh button in earlier betas.
HTTPS upgrade: If you visit a website that supports encrypted HTTPS but is also loading insecure content over unencrypted HTTP, Safari will now ensure that you connect to it over HTTPS so your entire connection is secure. This feature emulates the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s HTTPS Everywhere browser extension and really should be the default for every Web browser, as it is for Brave and Firefox .
Web extensions: Safari in iOS and iPadOS finally supports full Web extensions just like on the Mac. Extensions may or may not be a big deal for you, but they add essential features for some people, so I’ll explore that topic in-depth in another article.

In the end, the new version of Safari in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 offers numerous changes, many welcome, some less so. It’s clear that Apple wanted to make even more sweeping interface adjustments but moved too far in the direction of condensing and hiding controls. Luckily, options let you reverse most of the major interface changes if you don’t find them helpful.

What do you think? Which of these features and interface tweaks improve your Safari experience? What would you like to see Apple do in the future to make it even better?

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Comments About Hot New Features in Safari in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15

Notable replies.

I just discovered a new feature: Multiple timers on the Apple Watch.

I tried to set a timer via Siri for 25 minutes, but it got a five minute timer. So I tried again. Five minutes later, the five minute timer (which I thought got canceled) beeped, but the 25 minute timer was still counting away.

I can even label the timers which is great when cooking lots of stuff for Thanksgiving (“Set cake timer for 30 minutes. Set gravy timer for four minutes. Set turkey timer for 90 minutes…”)

For some reason, this doesn’t work with the iPhone.

One other thing: labeled timers only work when they are created with Siri. If you start a timer from the timer app itself, you cannot label it. (You can start multiple timers from the app, though, too.)

A good rundown of all that is new in watchOS 8:

Great article. Re closing tabs on iPhone, you can also swipe one to the left in Tab Grid to remove.

The only downside is you can no longer swipe tabs to close them. Instead, you must tap the somewhat obscured X button

Thanks, I’ve fixed that now. I must have swiped right and then assumed you couldn’t close tabs by swiping.

One “improvement” of Safari on the iPad I would pay money to reverse: Apple switched the appearance of foreground and background tabs, so that the darker, greyed-out, apparently disabed tab is actually the one you’re reading.

One of Appe’s competitive advantages over Microsoft used to be a consistent and sensible appearance of controls. Apple have slowly been vitiating this for years.

Super article Josh. Thanks. Two comments:

re: “there’s no obvious way to view all open tabs. You have to open the sidebar and tap the tab icon…” On my iPad, there’s a tab icon in the upper right corner — in the same “row” as the address bar.

One change that I don’t think you mentioned (and which is a change I don’t like) is that you no longer see the tabs of other Mac and iOS devices you own (iCloud tabs) — when you select to view open tabs. Instead (unless there is an option to modify this that I haven’t found), I have to open a Start page and scroll down. Ugh!

Also on the Mac, there’s a “Show tab overview” button that can be put in the top window bar.

On Mac Safari there’s a dedicated “Show iCloud Tabs” button for the window bar. No such widget on iPadOS Safari? (on iOS Safari those show in a list under tab view)

BTW, the capitalization above is taken verbatim from tooltips. Whatever happened to consistency and care to detail, Apple?

The tab overview is simply the tabs for the currently open tab group arranged in a grid. You can delete or rearrange the tabs in that view.

What would I like to see Apple do in the future to make Safari even better? Wow - answering that would take an enormous amout of time so I’ll just post the first ones that come to mind.

Have a setting to open all pages with all animation initially disabled (except perhaps those on one’s white list). Animation could be activated as needed for a page. This would separate Apple from Google and evil as much as anything else I can think of. Many people like me cannot tolerate very much animation and a lot of that has to do my vision. Animation is perhaps the most abused feature on web pages. Of course it would be a large task to implement this drastically needed option.

Have an indicator for the current page that effectively tells you when that page was last fully loaded and if the page updates dynamically. This will save billions of unecessary reloads and keep all of us from missing important information when we thought we had a fresh page but didn’t. It wouldn’t be perfect because some items (including images) get cached in numerous places and it’s hard to force immediate reloads from the host on some things, but an effort to provide the status of what’s displayed really matters.

In iOS Safari, trying to view and edit the URL in the address bar is an unmitigated disaster. It drives me crazy how the current implementation can be deemed acceptable. I know I can choose “email the page” just to capture the URL and work with it from there, which I do, but it’s wrong.

In iOS Safari, selecting and copying text in HTML pages (and actually everywhere else) is way harder than it should be. Things have barely improved, if at all, in the history of iOS. There needs to be a major effort focused just on this which can relieve an untold amount of pain. (I don’t mean copying text that the owner has tried to protect from copying, although bypassing foils might not be a bad idea either since if someone wants some displayed text bad enough, they will always get it.)

In latter versions of iOS Safari on the iPad, rearranging tabs has been an incredible nightmare and it’s far too easy to unintentionally drag a tab into a separate and new Safari process. Futhermore, there should be an immediate way to undo the last organizational or whatever change because many are by accident. Being offered recently closed tabs to reopen is a start and already available but it’s usefulness is limited. I also think that deleting anything by swiping ideally should be reversable because things can be lost with the slightest unintended swipe.

In iOS Safari, there should be a button or something to jump to the bottom of the page. I use a bookmark to do this which I think is Javascript.

In iOS Safari, it would be a good idea if Apple could isolate the “find in page” text search function. It’s a bit awkward combining it with web search.

Apple should assist us in dealing with certain ridiculous web page designs. The above request for disabling animation is critical for several reasons including making it possible to navigate through a simple article which is unnecessarily spread over many web pages to get in their 100 to 1 ads over content bloat. These unscrupulous pages are almost always avoided but they’re everywhere and anything that fights garbage is good. There’s also the bottomless pages that continuoulsy load additional content when one reaches bottom. Sometimes one has no idea what they’re getting into and navigation in many of these pages can become perilous on any browser anywhere, but it’s epecially bad in a mobile OS. Perhaps the browser can set a limit on dynamic end-of-page loads and then fool (and foil) the server and use additional tabs for the abyss. I do not know what actually might work or help (I’ve only begun to think about it), but it’s only the browser and the user that can do anything to discourage runaway pages. Sometimes the problem is just lame page design but it’s also a gimmick.

If you haven’t already, it sounds like you should go to System Preferences > Accessibility > Display and check “Reduce motion.” Doing so won’t make Safari automatically stop animations but it sets a media query property that site authors can check for. Conscientious authors can have a design variation that doesn’t use motion. In addition to honoring that OS setting, the home page for Nintendo’s Animal Crossing has an on-screen button to reduce motion on that page (it prominently features big motion animation).

Thanks Curtis for reminding me. I checked the reduce motions settings on my iPad and they are mostly the opposite of what I want. I checked my iPhone and the motion settings were already set to my desires. Perhaps my iPad settings got lost when I upgraded my iPad. I forgot how much difference it makes in Safari but I’ll find out. It should be better than nothing.

Thanks for the kind words. I was referring to the Compact Tab Bar option, in which there isn’t an obvious tab button.

Fair enough to say that this is not obvious, but a pinch of two fingers diagonally (e.g. a zoom out gesture) shows the open tabs in that window. Zoom gesture on one of the tabs makes that tab open as the current tab (though why you would do that rather than just tap the tab?)

Yes you were. I wound up re-reading that sentence “out of context.” And that led to my comment. My bad.

Yep…that’s terrible UI.

It’s surprising how Apple is flip-flopping on this.

With Big Sur the active window (and the active tab) became lighter, and backgrounded windows became darker. The exact opposite of how it was on previous versions of macOS.

Now with Safari 15, Safari appears to be going the reverse. Light tabs now indicate backgrounded tabs, while the foreground tab is lighter.

It would be nice if Apple made up its mind and then stuck with something for more than 18 months at a time.

I’m confused on how to work with windows in Safari in iPad OS 15… I think i’ve figured out the Tab Groups, which sort of make sense, but… I now have several windows open, each with multiple tabs, or just the start page. How do I close one? Why are tab groups in one place and windows in another? Why do my tab groups persist across windows? Can I turn it all off?! Can I move the … that invokes the split view window things? It’s smack in my muscle memory spot for ‘go to top of page’ and ‘go to url bar’.

After some futzing around:

you can close a window once it has loaded a page other than the start page. tap the 4 squares then close the window.
you can merge all windows by clicking and holding on the 4 squares on the top right to get a dropdown menu

Cheers, Dave

You can also close a window that you are not actively using by tapping the multitask three dot control on the top, which will show icons for all of your Safari windows at the bottom (so, for example, you can switch to another window,). But you can swipe any of the non-active windows up to close the window (and all of its tabs, so be careful,)

The long-press the window control icon and merge windows is not new - that’s been around since split view and slide over started (iOS 9?)

Hit the + to open a new tab. Scroll to the bottom - there should be an edit button. This lets you customize the start page. You probably want Favorites turned on and at the top of the list.

I’ve actually been enjoying the new URL bar at the bottom. Not so much because of having to type at the bottom (still wrestling with my muscle memory on that one), but because it makes tab navigation so simple. Swiping between tabs is so convenient. As is being able to open a new tab by just swiping beyond the last tab. The one last thing I’m looking for to no longer have go into the tab interface at all, is some kind of swipe or press to close the current tab. I noticed there’s no option for that in the menu that opens after tap and hold. Any ideas?

Join the discussion in the TidBITS Discourse forum

Participants.

White line on top of Safari

Posted on Dec 11, 2023 7:53 PM

Rumor: iOS 18 to add new ‘Web Eraser’ and page summarization features to Safari

Apple is reportedly planning big updates to Safari as part of iOS 18 and macOS 15 later this year. According to a report on Tuesday, the changes will include a new AI-powered tool called “Intelligent Search” with page summarization, a “Web Eraser” feature, and more.

iOS 18: New Safari features

The report, which comes from Marko Zivkovic at Apple Insider , cautions that “exact implementation” of these features “remains fuzzy.” We’d treat these claims with skepticism for the time being.

According to Zivkovic, Apple is planning a redesigned controls menu for Safari’s address bar that “consolidates old and new page control tools” in a central location. One of the new tools is reportedly something called “Intelligent Search.”

This feature, which is not enabled by default in test builds of Safari 18, can be activated from the new menu in the address bar. From there, the tool will “identify topics and key phrases within a webpage” and generate a summary of the page. The report speculates that Apple is “striving to deliver text summarization alongside Safari 18 later this year,” but again, the specific details are “fuzzy.”

Arc from The Browser Company also combines a variety of AI features with web browsing, including page summarization options.

Safari 18 in iOS 18 and macOS 15 will also reportedly include something called “Web Eraser.” This feature is “designed to allow users to remove, or erase, specific portions of web pages,” according to Zivkovic.

Using the Web Eraser feature, users could choose to remove certain elements from a webpage like ads, images, and more. It’s a functionality already offered by certain third-party ad blockers, but Apple is apparently working on its own first-party implementation for iOS 18 and macOS 15.

Notably, any changes you make to a webpage would apply each time you visited that page. “This means that Safari will remember the changes even after the original tab or window has been closed,” Zivkovic says.

When visiting a web page with previously erased content, Safari will inform the user that the page has been modified to reflect their desired changes. The browser will also give the user the option to revert changes and restore the webpage to its initial, unaltered state.

9to5Mac’s Take

Apple implementing what is essentially a built-in ad blocker to Safari could be disastrous for ad-supported online publications like the one you’re reading right now.

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IMAGES

Safari Menu Bar Theme Color Match
How to switch to compact tabs on Safari
How to Switch to Compact Tabs in Safari on Mac
How to Change the Safari Tab Bar Style on iPad
How to use the new Safari tab bar in iOS 15
Safari's color tab bar restricted to 'Compact' view in macOS Monterey

VIDEO

The Wiggly Safari Show! [Fannmade]
How to Fix Safari Scrolling/Jumping to Top of Previous Page!
How To Turn On Private Browsing on Safari in iPhone iOS 17
Safari Show at Ocean Adventure
Shaboozey
How to Always Show your Scrollbar in Safari (for MacBook Users)!

COMMENTS

How to fix the tab area color of Safari w…
The job is done from Safari Preferences panel. Two sections are to be checked: Tabs>Tab Layout>Compact and Advanced>Accessibility>Show color in compact tab bar. Surely Apple will fix this but who know when, so if one works with Safari and faces this issue, can work around it. MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 13.4. Posted on Apr 26, 2023 2:23 AM.
Change Color of Safari Toolbar
Change Color of Safari Toolbar. After Big Sur update yesterday (10/3/21) toolbars of safari and some othe apps are dark and hard to read. I see no option to change either in Safari drop down preference menu or Apple preference menus. Help... Preferences>Tabs>Show Color in Tab Bar. Uncheck it.
Safari's color tab bar restricted to 'Compact' view in macOS Monterey
A previous beta version of macOS Monterey added a "Show color in tab bar" option, but the selection was still enabled by default. Now, with the latest version of Safari for both Monterey and ...
How to Turn Off Tab Bar Coloring / Tinting in Safari
Select the Tabs panel. Uncheck the box next to Show color in tab bar. If you're using Safari in iOS 15, you can find the same option in Settings -> Safari. Under the "Tabs" section, turn off the ...
macOS Monterey and iPadOS 15.1 Release Candidates Limit Safari Color
A tab bar with color in Safari 15. ... "Show Color in Compact Tab Bar" is an option that can be enabled in both iPadOS 15.1 and macOS Monterey. On the iPad, ...
change color of Safari tabs
Safari 15 tabs with compact layout Hi, I'm still getting used to Safari 15 on macOS Big Sur. In general, I like the concept of combining the tab bar and the URL address bar via the "Compact" tab layout. But I do not like the "show color in tab bar" option, so I've disabled that. But this combination of settings renders all tabs (including the ...
Apple revives dedicated tab bar in Safari on iPad, with compact tabs
Safari's compact tabs on iPad are now entirely optional, and that's awesome news—the latest iPadOS beta now defaults to showing a separate row of tabs, just like Safari on your Mac. STORY HIGHLIGHTS: Apple has tweaked the new Safari in iPadOS 15 beta 4. The usual separate row of tabs is now back, turned on by default.
How to disable the colored Safari toolbar in MacOS Monterey
Step 1: To do so, open the Safari menu in the upper left, then select Preferences to reveal options. Step 2: Click the Tabs button at the top of the Preferences window and set the Tab layout to ...
How to Turn Off Tab Bar Colors in Safari for Mac
This feature only exists in Safari 15 and later, here's how you can turn it off: Open Safari on the Mac if you haven't done so already, then pull down the "Safari" menu and choose "Preferences". Choose "Tabs". Uncheck the box for "Show color in tab bar". The transparent/color tab bar effect will immediately turn off, and ...
How to change Safari 15's design back in macOS Monterey
An additional feature of the Compact view is something called "Show Colour on Compact Tab Bar". This feature will modify the base color of Safari, to try and match the dominant tones of the ...
Customize the Safari browser window on Mac
Customize the tab bar. In the Safari app on your Mac, choose Safari > Preferences, then click Tabs. Choose where to put tabs. Compact: Tabs move up to the toolbar. The active tab is the Smart Search field. Separate: Tabs remain in the tab bar, under the toolbar. See Change Tabs preferences in Safari. To customize Safari even more, choose Safari ...
How to stop Safari from changing colors in iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and macOS
Tap Safari. 3. Turn "Show Color in Tab Bar" off. There, now you know how to stop Safari for changing its color to match websites, on every new Apple OS. Henry is a managing editor at Tom's Guide ...
Change the layout in Safari on iPad
In the Safari app , you can choose the tab bar layout that works best for you. Go to Settings > Safari, then scroll down to Tabs. Select either Separate Tab Bar or Compact Tab Bar. You can move between layouts as much as you want without losing the tabs you have open. Note: If you're using the Compact Tab Bar layout, the menus and layout may ...
The Tragedy of Safari 15 for Mac's 'Tabs'
The "Compact" layout that puts tabs and the location field in the same row — by using the tabs themselves as the text editing fields for URLs — is, thankfully, off by default. But the "Show color in tab bar" option is on by default: Here's what it looks like as you switch back and forth between tabs with this option on.
How to Switch to Compact Tabs in Safari on Mac
Click the "Safari" menu in the top-left corner of the menu bar. Select "Preferences" from the context menu that opens. Select "Tabs" next to the "General" section. Next, select the "Compact" option. The change will instantly apply to all the tabs open in Safari. Unchecking the box for "Automatically Collapse Tab Titles into Icons" will cause ...
Safari 15 tabs with compact layout
Hi, I'm still getting used to Safari 15 on macOS Big Sur. In general, I like the concept of combining the tab bar and the URL address bar via the "Compact" tab layout. But I do not like the "show color in tab bar" option, so I've disabled that. But this combination of settings renders all tabs (including the active/address bar "tab") in exactly ...
How to Try the New Safari Tab Bar on iPad
Here's how. First, open Settings by tapping the grey gear icon. In Settings, tap "Safari" in the sidebar. In Safari settings, navigate to the "Tabs" section, then select "Compact Tab Bar" until it has a check mark below it. Next, launch Safari and open several websites at once. Previously, with "Separate Tab Bar" selected, you'd see a dedicated ...
Why doesn't Safari 15 on Desktop respect my theme-color setting?
Spent a long time experimenting: In Safari 16 for desktop the theme-color is not applied unless safari layout is set to "compact" in the preferences. In iPadOS, the "compact tab bar" must be selected under Settings > Safari. In iOS, you need to enable the "Allow Website Tinting" setting under Settings > Safari. - Miguel Sánchez Villafán.
How to switch to compact tabs on Safari
How to use Safari's compact tabs. 1. Open the Safari browser. (Image credit: Laptop Mag) 2. Open Safari's Preferences settings window by right-clicking Safari on the top-left corner of the ...
Hot New Features in Safari in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15
As with the iOS version of Safari, you can revert to a calm gray tab bar if you prefer. Go to Settings > Safari and turn off Show Color in Tab Bar. Compact Tab Bar in iPadOS 15. If you want a look at Apple's original concept for Safari's tab bar in iPadOS 15, go to Settings > Safari, and under Tabs, select Compact Tab Bar.
Safari 17: Display bug in browser window …
SYSTEM INFO. MacOS 14.4.1. Safari 17.4.1. Tab layout: Compact. Safari settings > Advanced > Show color in compact tab bar = ON. DESCRIPTION. There seems to be an issue with Safari window theme-ing after using the sidebar while having both compact tab bar and "Show color in compact tab bar" enabled. The issue is generally only takes up a portion ...
How to switch to a Compact Tab Bar in Safari for iPadOS 15
How to switch to a Compact Tab Bar in Safari for iPadOS 15 You have a couple of options when it comes to your Tab Bar's appearance in iPadOS: Separate or Com...
White line on top of Safari
I found that switching to compact tab bar in settings fixed this issue for me, I also made sure to keep the setting "Show Color in Compact Tab Bar" on under accessibility as it seemed to affect that white bar as well. Settings>Safari>Scroll down to "Tabs">Select Compact Tab Bar>Scroll down to Accessibility> Make sure "Show Color in ...
iOS 18 rumor: These new AI features are coming to Safari
Apple is reportedly planning big updates to Safari as part of iOS 18 and macOS 15 later this year. According to a report on Tuesday, the changes will include a new AI-powered tool called ...

Safari's color tab bar restricted to 'Compact' view in macOS Monterey, iPadOS 15.1

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