Samsung Follows Apple and Lets Users Move Mobile Browser Address Bar to the Bottom of the Screen

Apple took significant flak from users when it moved Safari's address bar to the bottom of the screen in iOS 15, but Samsung apparently liked it enough that it's now added the same option to its own mobile web browser for Android phones.

As shown in the tweet above, the optional layout now appears in a beta version of the Samsung Internet app. To be fair to Samsung, Apple wasn't the first to move the address bar below the browser window. Google tried something similar in 2016 for its own home-grown browser before canning the idea following negative user feedback. Microsoft had a similar browser interface design on Windows Phone, and even Firefox has played with a bottom address bar on Android.

That said, Samsung's timing is a bit curious, coming in the wake of Apple's much-publicized and highly divisive Safari interface redesign. Apple made sweeping changes to Safari browser in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey, making numerous alterations to the organization and layout of tabs and other tools. Following a user backlash, Apple walked back the most controversial changes in successive betas, and made the position of the address bar optional.