Apple Releases Safari Technology Preview 109 With Upcoming Safari 14 Features

Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced four years ago in March 2016. Apple designed the ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.

‌Safari Technology Preview‌ release 109 is the first version built on the new Safari 14 update included in macOS Big Sur. It supports Safari Web Extensions imported from Chrome, Firefox, and Edge and converted using Xcode 12, plus it adds the Privacy Report feature that shows the trackers that Intelligent Tracking Prevention is blocking.

Tab previews are available so you can preview tabs to find the one you're looking for, and tabs also support favicons by default. In Safari 14, Adobe Flash is no longer supported.

‌Safari Technology Preview‌ will also now notify users when a saved password in iCloud Keychain has been in a data breach, and Web Authentication using Touch ID has been implemented, as has support for PIN entry and account selection on external FIDO2 security keys.

Along with these major new features, the update introduces bug fixes and feature improvements for Web API, CSS, Web Animations, SVG, IndexedDB, Scrolling, Layout, Media, WebRTC, Back-forward Cache, JavaScript, Editing, Accessibility, Apple Pay, Web Inspector, and Web Driver.

The new ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ update is available for macOS Catalina and macOS Big Sur, the newest version of the Mac operating system that's set to be released this fall.

The ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ update is available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences to anyone who has downloaded the browser. Full release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website.

Apple's aim with ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.