In the third developer beta of macOS Monterey, which came out this morning, Apple has overhauled the design of Safari, making the tab bar more similar to the current tab bar in macOS Big Sur.
The prior Safari design did away with the dedicated URL and search interface, instead allowing any individual tab to be used for navigation input. Tabs were also all arranged at the top of the display to minimize the space taken up at the top of a Safari window.
In macOS Monterey, Apple has walked this back. There's a dedicated URL/search bar at the top of the Safari window, with the tabs arranged below it. Clicking on a tab makes it the active window and it's easier to drag tabs for rearranging or opening in a new window.
It's still quite far off from the current Safari design in macOS Big Sur, but it's certainly an improvement over the initial macOS Monterey design.
The new and separate tab bar is enabled by default when upgrading to macOS Monterey beta three, but Apple has included an option to revert to the original Monterey design. If you to go View and toggle off "Show Separate Tab Bar," you can use the original design.
macOS Monterey beta 3 also appears to lay the groundwork for Universal Control. Under System Preferences -> Displays -> Add Display -> Advanced, there are now preferences that can be selected for the Universal Control feature.
Unfortunately, Universal Control is not functional and we'll have to wait for a later beta to experience a working version.
I feel like I’m the only person that liked the change! Oh well, not a big deal to me at the end of the day as I’m one to never really have more than 5 tabs open and close them as soon as I’m done. I mostly appreciated how the interface stayed thin with more than one tab open. Oh well, can’t please everyone!
edit: as others have pointed out, there’s a choice between the two styles! Happy day :)
Monday October 18, 2021 12:33 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple has admitted defeat on the Safari design changes that have been present for the entire macOS Monterey beta, and the release candidate that was provided to developers today reverts to the old style that was available prior to Safari 15. Safari design in the macOS Monterey release candidate macOS Monterey now features a standard Big Sur tab design that does have the tabs with spaces in...
Monday October 18, 2021 5:52 pm PDT by Juli Clover
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.
A tab bar with color in Safari 15 If you want to have a color tab bar that blends in with the background color of a website, you need to toggle on the Compact Tab Bar, which is the tab bar design that...
Monday September 20, 2021 11:37 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today released Safari 15 for macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina devices, with Apple introducing support for features that are going to be coming in the macOS Monterey update set to be released later this year.
Safari 15 introduces a new look for Safari with rounded, more defined tabs and support for transparency, a compact tab bar option that can be toggled on or off, and Tab Groups....
Thursday October 14, 2021 1:27 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today seeded a new beta of Safari 15.1 for macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina, allowing developers to test the new Safari update ahead of its launch. Safari 15.1 is also the version of Safari that's available in the macOS Monterey beta.
In yesterday's macOS Monterey release, Apple tweaked the design of the Favorites bar, moving it back up above the Tab bar where it was before Safari...
Wednesday October 13, 2021 12:35 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple is continuing to refine the unpopular Safari design that it introduced in macOS Monterey, and the latest beta tweaks the position of the Favorites bar.
The design initially had Favorites located below the tab bar, a departure from the location in prior versions of macOS, including macOS Big Sur. With the tenth beta, Apple has relocated Favorites and put it back above the Tab bar where...
Wednesday October 6, 2021 12:58 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Safari 15 has faced a barrage of complaints about its controversial new design, and while Apple has listened to user feedback and reversed some changes or made them optional, many users still struggle to discern an active tab from a background tab on the Mac browser because of the inverted shading.
Unfortunately for users who do not like the new design, Apple has not made any changes to the...
Monday October 4, 2021 11:05 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Safari 15's controversial new design on the Mac has led to complaints about the way the browser indicates which tab is active.
As illustrated by Daring Fireball's John Gruber, there was never any ambiguity about which tab is active in previous versions of Safari, as an active tab is shown with lighter shading that matches the browser's toolbar.
In Safari 15, however, tabs have a new...
The fourth beta of iPadOS 15 that was released today introduces tweaks to Safari, with the Safari layout now mirroring the updated layout that was introduced in macOS Monterey Beta 3. The new Safari design in iPadOS 15 beta 4 Prior to this beta, Safari on iPad was similar to Safari on iOS with no dedicated tab bar, but after the update, Apple has added a dedicated tab bar that's activated by...
Friday October 1, 2021 10:50 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple on late Thursday seeded the first beta of Safari 15.1 for macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina to developers for testing. Safari 15.1 beta is also included in the eighth beta of macOS Monterey seeded earlier this week.
The release notes for the Safari 15.1 beta are largely recycled from the initial release of Safari 15, but in our own testing, the beta appears to fix an issue where...
Tuesday August 17, 2021 10:36 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple in iOS 15 introduced a new Safari experience that moves the URL bar and tab interface to the bottom of the iPhone, a decision that has been controversial with iPhone users. Safari options in iOS 15 beta 6 Throughout the beta testing period, Apple has been tweaking the design of the Safari browser on the iPhone and in beta 6, there are further refinements. The bottom tab bar has been...
Top Rated Comments
edit: as others have pointed out, there’s a choice between the two styles! Happy day :)
Now the tabs and address bar having same general shape in different rows just looks odd and is wasting even more space than Safari in Big Sur.