iOS 17: How to Separate Your Browsing Habits With Safari Profiles

[MysteriousStain]

This is like the container tabs in desktop Firefox which automatically opens websites in their assigned profile. What I’m really hoping for is for iOS browsers to be able to use their own graphics engines and not just webkit.

 

[GermanSuplex]

Sounds like a nifty feature that will help me better keep tabs and such organized. I currently use two browsers to accomplish this, I've got too much overlap in work and home and tab grouping isn't enough to help me keep them sorted.

 

[_Spinn_]

Sounds very useful.

 

[wegster]

Will have to see how it works out across devices, although I kind of already use it to a point via tab groups initiated on iPad which 'sometimes' also show on my Mac.

I use Choosy currently along with some rules for various apps on my Mac, so e.g. all links from work apps open in chrome, and personal links open in Safari. It works well enough for that use case (e.g. don't ever accidentally show my Amazon shopping or bank account when sharing my (work) browser in a meeting).

Amusingly, I requested profiles as a beta ER around 10 years ago when they were first implementing Outlook/Exchange mail compatibility, might have been somewhere around Snow Leopard...

 

[Pinkyyy 💜🍎]

Looking forward to both this feature and Web Apps on Sonoma. Hopefully they both work as intended !

 

[svish]

Good article. Will be a useful feature

 

[JV8]

In iOS 17, Safari has gained a new feature called Profiles, which is designed to help separate your browsing sessions into things like Work, School, or Personal. Here's how to use it in the beta and when iOS 17 is released to the general public later this month.

In ‌iOS 17‌, Apple expands on Tab Groups with a Profile feature that is designed to let you separate your browsing for different use cases. You can create a "Work" profile and a "Personal" profile, for example, so all of your work-related browsing is kept separate from your personal browsing.

• How to Install the iOS 17 Public Beta

Each profile gets its own icon and silos your history, Tab Groups, Favorites, Private Browsing tabs, and cookies. You can even assign specific extensions to different profiles to optimize your browsing experience based on the task at hand.

How to Create a Safari Profile

To set up profiles on iPhones running iOS 17, simply follow these steps:

1. Open the Settings app on you iPhone or iPad.
2. Scroll down to Safari.
3. Under the "Profiles" section, tap New Profile.
4. Select an icon, name, and background color for the profile.
   Choose your settings for Favorites and New Tabs.
5. Tap Done.

When you create a new profile, your device will automatically generate a "Personal" profile to differentiate other browsing sessions conducted outside of the profile you created.

Both profiles and additional ones you create can be edited in the same section of the Settings app. When editing an existing profile, you can also opt to enable any Safari extensions you have installed on your device, as well as delete the profile if desired.

How to Switch Between Profiles in Safari

1. In Safari, tap the Tabs icon with two overlapping squares.
2. Tap the middle icon to bring up the active profile's menu.
3. Tap the Profile option to change which profile is active.

The Safari Profiles feature is available in iOS 17, iPadOS 17 and macOS Sonoma, as well as being part of Safari 17 for macOS Monterey and macOS Ventura. Any profiles you create will be synced across devices logged into the same Apple ID.

• How to Download Safari 17 Beta for macOS Ventura and Monterey

The new Safari also brings additional privacy functionality, improvements to search, updated Siri integration, and more. A rundown on all of the new features in the ‌iOS 17‌ update can be found in our comprehensive iOS 17 roundup.

Article Link: iOS 17: How to Separate Your Browsing Habits With Safari Profiles

Where is the explanation about moving existing bookmarks from older versions of Safari to the new profiles?