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 redesigned to appear below page content, and Apple has also added a toggle to show the address bar at the top of the iPhone rather than the bottom.
The original design in iOS 15 beta 5
The addition of a toggle to show the address bar at the top of the Safari interface returns Safari to a more iOS 14-like experience, walking back many of the iOS 15 changes.
With the bottom view option toggled on, Safari offers a dedicated toolbar with buttons at the bottom of the interface, which is also an improvement over the prior floating design.
Apple has also introduced new setting options to remove the website tinting and to enable a Tab Bar while in landscape mode. There was previously a "Show Color in Tab Bar" accessibility setting, which appears to be the same as the new "Allow Website Tinting" toggle.
Apple previously added similar toggles in iPadOS 15 and macOS Monterey to offer either a separate tab bar (which was the original default when the betas launched) or a merged tab bar, which is more similar to the previous design.
* Moving the address bar to the bottom: smart * Offering people a choice of top or bottom: smarter * Trying to cram every control into a single address bar with tiny touch targets: really dumb
Glad to see Apple reverse course on that last design blunder.
Tuesday August 17, 2021 2:12 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple released the sixth beta of iOS 15 just a week after the fifth beta, but the new update brings some of the most significant tweaks that we've seen to iOS 15 during the beta testing period.
Safari Redesign
Apple in iOS 15 beta 6 has added a toggle to move the Safari address bar to the top of the interface, which returns Safari to an iOS 14-like design and mitigates all of the Safari...
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...
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...
Wednesday July 14, 2021 11:39 am PDT by Juli Clover
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...
Wednesday July 14, 2021 11:28 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today released the third betas of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, and the company is continuing to refine the suite of new features that are coming in the update. There have been multiple complaints about Safari on iOS, so in the third beta, Apple has introduced some refinements.
This article covers everything that's new in the third beta of iOS 15.
Safari Search
When you tap into a URL bar...
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....
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...
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 September 22, 2021 3:46 pm PDT by Dan Barbera
If you just recently installed iOS 15, you may have noticed that Safari has some significant design changes, but there are also a ton of new features you might not have noticed.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. In our latest video, we walk through everything that's new in Safari, and it's well worth watching if you want to get the most out of Apple's browser. Make...
Updates for Safari, FaceTime, and many other apps, Universal Control to let a single mouse or trackpad control multiple devices, new Shortcuts app, machine-learning Live Text detection and Visual Lookup, and more.
Top Rated Comments
* Offering people a choice of top or bottom: smarter
* Trying to cram every control into a single address bar with tiny touch targets: really dumb
Glad to see Apple reverse course on that last design blunder.
And fixed the stupid floating bar issue lacking buttons.