macOS Monterey Beta 3: Apple Redesigns Safari Tab Interface Following Complaints

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.

macos monterey safari beta 3
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.

universal control settings monterey
Unfortunately, ‌Universal Control‌ is not functional and we'll have to wait for a later beta to experience a working version.

Tag: Safari
Related Forum: macOS Monterey

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Top Rated Comments

kalafalas Avatar
51 months ago
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 :)
Score: 56 Votes (Like | Disagree)
grmlin Avatar
51 months ago
This looks like crap. So much wasted vertical space. ?
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sniffies Avatar
51 months ago
Thank god it can be disabled. The new tabs look too much like the search/address bar, which is visually confusing.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pizzzle Avatar
51 months ago
Not sure how this is an improvement...
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MrGimper Avatar
51 months ago
Well done Apple for reversing that total cluster-f
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
profets Avatar
51 months ago
Geez. What is going on.

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.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)