Apple Releases Safari 15.1 for macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina

Apple today released Safari 15.1 for macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina, giving Mac users who do not have macOS Monterey installed access to the latest Safari features.

macOS Monterey Release Candidate Safari Tabs Feature
Safari 15.1 reintroduces the previous tab design that was available prior to Safari 15. With Monterey and Safari 15, Apple introduced a new "Compact" look that changed the design of the tabs and unified them with the URL bar, but many people were not fond of that design.

In Safari 15.1, Apple undid those design changes and returned Safari to its pre-Monterey look, doing away with the updated design and the feature that blended the top bar in Safari with the background color of websites. Those who liked the new design can still enable it in Safari preferences, but the old design is the default.

Safari can be downloaded on machines running macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina by going to System Preferences > Updates. If you have macOS Monterey 12.0.1 installed, you already have Safari 15.1.

Tag: Safari

Top Rated Comments

dannys1 Avatar
18 months ago
I want the old tabs with the colour matched title bar though!
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chucker23n1 Avatar
18 months ago
It's minor and doesn't really matter, but…




Why is "Show color in Compact Tab Bar" in "Advanced"? You already have the Compact/Separate radio buttons in "Tabs". Why not simply show the checkbox when "Compact" is selected.

(Also, that blue border is really slim. It's barely noticeable that "Separate" is selected.)

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Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DesertDrummer Avatar
18 months ago
Thank you, Apple. This was the right call from a UX perspective. People who love Compact Layout can still use it, and those of us who prefer Separate Layout can keep the previous version of it, which was more usable in that format.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
winexprt Avatar
18 months ago
Thank god. Couldn't stand that design.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jim Lahey Avatar
18 months ago

iOS 16 won’t have any design changes as apple will be scared to change anything; I miss the days apple told up what we like and we get used to it
Changing stuff in the pursuit of increased usability is cool. Breaking what already works is not.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
riptidewahoo Avatar
18 months ago
no more confusion!!
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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