Apple Releases Safari Technology Preview 173 With Safari 17 Features

[MacRumors]

Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced in March 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.

Safari Technology Preview 173 adds functionality that is included in Safari 17, coming with macOS Sonoma. There are Feature Flags that replace the Experimental Features section of the Develop menu, and the Develop menu itself has been revamped. Responsive Design Mode has been updated to focus on the responsiveness of a page's design at any height or width.

Available features on macOS Sonoma include Profiles for separating browsing data like History and Favorites, web apps, and improved private browsing mode. Features for all operating systems include Live Text support for vertical text recognition in images and videos, HEIC support, and JPEG XL, a new image format with an improved compression algorithm for better image quality at smaller file sizes than JPEG.

The browser also includes updates for Web Inspector, CSS, Media Queries, Rendering, Editing, JavaScript, Popover, Images, Media, Web API, and SVG.

The current Safari Technology Preview release is compatible with machines running macOS Monterey 12.3 or later, macOS Ventura, and macOS Sonoma, the latest version of macOS that Apple is beta testing right now.

The Safari Technology Preview update is available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences or System Settings to anyone who has downloaded the browser. Full release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website.

Apple's aim with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.

Article Link: Apple Releases Safari Technology Preview 173 With Safari 17 Features

 

[MauiPa]

Crashes when I clear history, otherwise works great

 

[seanmills1020]

I hope that Apple improves the performance of sites that contain the BLINK tag.

#kidding

 

[owidhh]

boo, no profiles except on Sonoma

 

[koelsh]

What's with adding JPEG XL? Support for it was already dropped by Google, who was one of the founders, in Chrome last December.

I know Google is not exactly a bastion of it's supported today, will it be supported tomorrow but I thought the grave had already been dug.

 

[ultrafiel80]

Support for JPEG XL does seem odd. Seems like that ship has passed. Also Google seems to be starting to promote AVIF which is a better compression algorithm and can do video as well. That competes with HEIC a bit though, so hopefully we don’t get Apple and Google pushing different directions on formats.

 

[PsykX]

boo, no profiles except on Sonoma

I've gotta say, this is the only reason I want the new Safari. Want to separate Home from Work. Guess I'll wait more!

 

[alwillis]

Support for JPEG XL does seem odd. Seems like that ship has passed. Also Google seems to be starting to promote AVIF which is a better compression algorithm and can do video as well.

Many in the web community were pretty upset that Google dropped support for JPEG XL after including it behind a flag for months. JPEG XL has advantages over AVIF, including progressive decoding and the ability to recompress existing JPEG files in a lossless fashion while saving 20% on file size.

I think it's a shrewd move by Apple, getting out ahead of Google with an image format many in the web community really want. However JPEG XL was being viewed previously, it'll be supported on hundreds of millions devices this fall after Sonoma, iOS 17 and iPadOS ship.

The article The Case for JPEG XL covers all of the details.

 

[masotime]

I downloaded the tech preview but I can't view JPEG XL files - it's not listed in the Developer > Feature Flags section. How do I enable support for it? I'm on macOS Ventura 13.4.1 - is it a Sonoma-only feature?

 

[3166792]

I downloaded the tech preview but I can't view JPEG XL files - it's not listed in the Developer > Feature Flags section. How do I enable support for it? I'm on macOS Ventura 13.4.1 - is it a Sonoma-only feature?

I tested this feature on the Sonoma beta and Safari Technology Preview by visiting https://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/hdr/hdr-jxl.php and the images load

 

[CostaMoses]

boo, no profiles except on Sonoma

I've gotta say, this is the only reason I want the new Safari. Want to separate Home from Work. Guess I'll wait more!

you both may want to try Arc Browser - their profiles and spaces work really well. I used Safari for pretty much everything, but switched over a few months ago and am so happy with it! The only thing I miss is how the codes texted to me would autofill on Safari. That is such a nice Safari feature.

 

[masotime]

I tested this feature on the Sonoma beta and Safari Technology Preview by visiting https://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/hdr/hdr-jxl.php and the images load

Thanks! I tried the link, it doesn't work for me. I'm guessing it's a Sonoma-only feature then :/

 

[koelsh]

Thanks! I tried the link, it doesn't work for me. I'm guessing it's a Sonoma-only feature then :/

Features for all operating systems include Live Text support for vertical text recognition in images and videos, HEIC support, and JPEG XL, a new image format with an improved compression algorithm for better image quality at smaller file sizes than JPEG.

Yea, article lists JPEG XL as supposing to be included in Ventura... Is it instead an M-series chip feature?

Oh well, only features I was wanting to check out anyway was "web apps" and profiles. Not subjecting myself to another cycle of beta software nightmare just for it.

 

[filip.morris]

Hi, any idea how to get it on Monterey, if I don't have previous version installed? There are only Sonoma and Ventura versions, on the download page...

 

[makutu]

The new Responsive Design Mode is a big step backwards. Now, you need to go look up the screen widths and heights for iPhone and iPad in various orientations - or install Xcode + configure simulators, which themselves take about a minute to launch. The option to simply see "yep, here's how this would look on an iPhone sized screen" was extremely valuable. While simulator for "here is EXACTLY how it will look" is nice, it makes a simple check MUCH harder.

 

[owidhh]

you both may want to try Arc Browser - their profiles and spaces work really well. I used Safari for pretty much everything, but switched over a few months ago and am so happy with it! The only thing I miss is how the codes texted to me would autofill on Safari. That is such a nice Safari feature.

But this won’t enable the Profiles in Safari….

 

[masotime]

Yea, article lists JPEG XL as supposing to be included in Ventura... Is it instead an M-series chip feature?

Oh well, only features I was wanting to check out anyway was "web apps" and profiles. Not subjecting myself to another cycle of beta software nightmare just for it.

Thanks! I'm not sure why I'm not seeing it then 😭 - oh well 🤷‍♂️

 

[Mr.Mozi]

Can someone confirm whether the responsive presets (^⌘R) are back or not? Apple has removed them entirely in Sonoma's Safari 17, making web development quite hard.

 

[gfbio]

Gosh, can't believe that it took so many years for Apple to include icons in the fav bar.

 

[LanTao]

Hi, any idea how to get it on Monterey, if I don't have previous version installed? There are only Sonoma and Ventura versions, on the download page...

I think the article is wrong, it's not available at all for Monterey. Release 172 already wasn't.

 

[hiphopdan]

version 172 crashed on startup for me every single time, but this release seems to be working just fine. M1 MBP ventura 13.5.

Can't make the leap to Sonoma beta just yet on my daily driver.

 

[UncleGuido]

Does this version support HDR images (on compatible displays) from AVIF or JXL files?

 

[emosewamai]

Safari Technology Preview 173 adds functionality that is included in Safari 17

1. I know, I am in minority for asking this feature - Split Tabs. I found it super useful than cascading two windows and switching between them, window losing focus etc. Arc Browser is super helpful with this feature.
2. Native ad blocking would be great just like how Brave does. Using external ad blockers is hogging my machine/Safari and I end up restarting Safari.

 

[alwillis]

I downloaded the tech preview but I can't view JPEG XL files - it's not listed in the Developer > Feature Flags section. How do I enable support for it? I'm on macOS Ventura 13.4.1 - is it a Sonoma-only feature?

JPEG XL is Sonoma-only at this point.

 

[alwillis]

1. I know, I am in minority for asking this feature - Split Tabs. I found it super useful than cascading two windows and switching between them, window losing focus etc. Arc Browser is super helpful with this feature.
2. Native ad blocking would be great just like how Brave does. Using external ad blockers is hogging my machine/Safari and I end up restarting Safari.

I would like split windows as well.