Safari Browser to Get UI Overhaul and New Features Including Tab Groups

[Bobcat32]

Bookmarks button better still be easy to access. Also I hope this means Dark Reader for mobile Safari! 😀

There has been a dark reader in iOS for years! First off, tap the aA inside the address bar at the top of any web page in Safari. Then go and tap ‘show reader view’ at the top from the selections shown to you. After selecting ‘show reader view’ and Reader mode has been activated then go and select the aA at the top of the address bar again and select a color from the 4 options available to you. Dark in your case and it will be applied until you decide to change it again

 

[JippaLippa]

I'm finding safari to he very buggy (macos 11.4 on an M1 here);
The new design looks lovely but I just want the bugs fixed...
Especially with content playback (gifs and webm)

 

[ErikGrim]

Pretty sure Opera did the tab groups first.

Yeah, except Safari already HAD tab groups. They are just a bit more hidden:

See those "Open in New Tabs" at the bottom of the menus? Tab groups!

 

[macintoshmac]

Yeah, except Safari already HAD tab groups. They are just a bit more hidden:

View attachment 1788951

See those "Open in New Tabs" at the bottom of the menus? Tab groups!

Exactly. They did not need to do this as a new feature. Also, the URL bar is a blurry mess on MacBook Air 2017 most of the times. It gets difficult to read the text.

 

[ErikGrim]

See those "Open in New Tabs" at the bottom of the menus? Tab groups!

What are you disagreeing with here @hevaKmaI ?

 

[MacBH928]

Safari is no longer a traditional web browser, its becoming more like a utility or an app that can browse the web. It does things very very differently. Will have to use it to see if its better or worse.

URL bar at bottom? hmmm...

 

[macintoshmac]

What are you disagreeing with here @hevaKmaI ?

I tried asking the same to a member once. They explicitly refused saying why they disagreed.😂

 

[ErikGrim]

I tried asking the same to a member once. They explicitly refused saying why they disagreed.😂

Going to call out @nesl247 for the same reason. Explicitly state your disagreement, rather than just thumbing this down. Why?

 

[shapesinaframe]

I really hope tab groups in Safari behave like workspaces in Opera (save tabs state when the tab group is inactive) and not like all the tab group extensions on Firefox (which reload all the tabs every time the group is opened) 🤞🤞

 

[Sarkany]

UI copied from Firefox 89.

Yeah. FireFox’s looks better in some areas.

 

[GermanSuplex]

Like pushing the share sheet into some dots with all of the other useful shortcuts?

Yeah, basically, haha.

I've seen the three dots menu on iOS where previously one-tap functions were, and I don't care for it. As soon as they unveiled Safari and I saw the dots, I kind of groaned.

The GUI looks great, and there's other things I enjoy, but I hope its customizable, because the shortcuts up top do not bother me. Hopefully the menu is there for those who like a clean interface, and the rest of us can drag them back out and pin to the top.

 

[teejaysplace24]

If this design looks old school to some readers, that's because it is. In 2009, Apple introduced a feature called "Tabs on Top" in the beta version of Safari 4, which was similar to their implementation here. Needless to say, people were horrified — horrified — that Apple would dare amend the sacredness of their UI. Walt Mossberg called it "Apple's worst decision." Mac Daily News refused to even use them:

The very first thing we did after the first day with Safari 4 Public Beta was to fire up the Terminal to nuke the poorly-thought-out tabs, restoring them back under the Bookmarks Bar where they belong…

WHERE THEY BELONG. And Mac Observer was just totally confused:

Next, because the tabs are placed on the top of the window, the user is now at a loss on where to drag the main window. Safari 4 fails.

Chrome introduced a similar layout around the same time and has used it ever since. SHOCKINGLY, no subsequent reports were made of Chrome users not knowing where or how to drag their windows for the last 12 years. Anyway, when the GM shipped, feature was noticeably absent and Apple said no more about it.

Personally, I have used Chrome ever since, largely because it was faster (at the time), but also because their tab layout is more intuitive. (It most closely mirrors real life when physical tabs are, you know, at the top where they belong. But I may give Safari another go now that Apple has seemingly overcome their fear of Walt Mossberg.

 

[macintoshmac]

If this design looks old school to some readers, that's because it is. In 2009, Apple introduced a feature called "Tabs on Top" in the beta version of Safari 4, which was similar to their implementation here. Needless to say, people were horrified — horrified — that Apple would dare amend the sacredness of their UI. Walt Mossberg called it "Apple's worst decision." Mac Daily News refused to even use them:



WHERE THEY BELONG. And Mac Observer was just totally confused:



Chrome introduced a similar layout around the same time and has used it ever since. SHOCKINGLY, no subsequent reports were made of Chrome users not knowing where or how to drag their windows for the last 12 years. Anyway, when the GM shipped, feature was noticeably absent and Apple said no more about it.

Personally, I have used Chrome ever since, largely because it was faster (at the time), but also because their tab layout is more intuitive. (It most closely mirrors real life when physical tabs are, you know, at the top where they belong. But I may give Safari another go now that Apple has seemingly overcome their fear of Walt Mossberg.

Fear of Walt Mossberg 😁

 

[pizzabox]

Did I see this right—the website title disappears from the tab and you only get an icon? That would be a nightmare. Who keeps all their tabs straight by favicon alone? The title is there for a reason.

 

[dburkhanaev]

Exactly. They did not need to do this as a new feature. Also, the URL bar is a blurry mess on MacBook Air 2017 most of the times. It gets difficult to read the text.

I've been using it for only a few hours, but what is aggravating me with limitless levels of frustration is that it appears that the search bar is pushed right [not - left: EDIT] when new tabs are generated. It won't stay center (which I don't like, but still) and it won't stay on the left just beyond the back button. I don't want it always to be in a different place. The more tabs the further away it is. Horrible for established workflows and muscle memory. Has anyone seen a way to pin it or make it persistant? Maybe I'm missing something. I really love the privacy and render speeds in Safari most of the time. I really don't want to abandon it for something else like MS Edge in MacOS on a MacBook Pro.

 

[RandomDSdevel]

-----My initial thoughts on this:

• Internet Explorer had tab groups of a different sort on Windows for a little while: when you opened a link in a new tab, the resulting tab would be grouped with the one you launched it from.
• Also, perhaps 'tab groups' are the beginning of the inclusion of more browsing-session–management features in Safari so we don't have to use external extensions for that? That'd be nice.
• I'm glad to hear you can turn that window tinting off!

-----As for the new tab bar layout…that's going to take some getting used to, at minimum. I agree that having the location bar inside a variable-width UI element is…a bit messy, to put it mildly, in terms of UI/UX. (For the record, I'm also one of those people who didn't like when we got stuck with the address and search bars getting stuck together, too.) Also:

If this design looks old school to some readers, that's because it is. In 2009, Apple introduced a feature called "Tabs on Top" in the beta version of Safari 4, which was similar to their implementation here. Needless to say, people were horrified — horrified — that Apple would dare amend the sacredness of their UI.

Yup, this feels like a…weird attempt at 'tabs on top' that doesn't move the toolbar to me, too. Let's see how well that works in practice…

 

[dburkhanaev]

Did I see this right—the website title disappears from the tab and you only get an icon? That would be a nightmare. Who keeps all their tabs straight by favicon alone? The title is there for a reason

I submitted a suggestion via feedback assistant regarding this issue. I also submitted one for the fact that the search bar pushes endlessly toward the right and is essentially free moving.

Also it seems you can customize the toolbar and put every button back except the reload page button. I think I'll have to submit a ticket for that, unless it's been missing for a long time and I'm just now missing it.I usually right click but my cursor was up there. I went to reload the page, no joy finding that control.

 

[dburkhanaev]

Did I see this right—the website title disappears from the tab and you only get an icon? That would be a nightmare. Who keeps all their tabs straight by favicon alone? The title is there for a reason.

So I poked around in the settings. So the under preferences select tabs and then unclick automatically shrink tabs into icons.

 

[dburkhanaev]

Chrome introduced a similar layout around the same time and has used it ever since. SHOCKINGLY, no subsequent reports were made of Chrome users not knowing where or how to drag their windows for the last 12 years. Anyway, when the GM shipped, feature was noticeably absent and Apple said no more about it.

I don't care as much about the tabs at the top. Like the Chrome UI which I find unpleasant and don't like, I think it would be preferable to have a toggle under the tabs section of preferences to just keep it at top or drop it down; let the user decide what's best.

But what I don't like is that the search bar constantly shifts right when tabs are open. I read from right to left and that's how I want to interact with open search and address pointing. I read right to left and I work right to left. The search bar should have a pin feature so you can pin it down anywhere or at the very least in the customize toolbar option you should be able to make it persistent next to whatever buttons you drop it next to.

If you the user want the option to have a floating search/address bar I'm all in for it. But there should be a way for this not to be a thing. Neither of the above should ever be acceptable on a browser that I'm using.

 

[cmaier]

Power users are going to love this, but I can see this confusing so many people - especially the new iOS layout. I can't wait though!

finding it very confusing how the tabs move around/change size as you switch between them.

 

[dburkhanaev]

This is certainly not going to go down well. They will have to tweak the design aspects of this.

- reload button needs to be available all the time

Oddly you can add back the back and forward button, the archaic Home button, but not the reload or share sheet. I already left the suggestion for these in feedback assistant, but I think that everyone who has this issue should leave a feedback ticket for the reload button and I would also say the share sheet. Truncating useful, onetouch shortcuts, into a submenu is suboptimal.

 

[cmaier]

View attachment 1789754
Oddly you can add back the back and forward button, the archaic Home button, but not the reload or share sheet. I already left the suggestion for these in feedback assistant, but I think that everyone who has this issue should leave a feedback ticket for the reload button and I would also say the share sheet. Truncating useful, onetouch shortcuts, into a submenu is suboptimal.

doesn’t everyone just cmd-r to reload?

 

[dburkhanaev]

Power users are going to love this, but I can see this confusing so many people - especially the new iOS layout. I can't wait though!

As a power user, I don't love this. In fact, there lack of customization of the toolbar for one-touch shortcuts like share sheets and reload in favor of a smaller, harder-to-read sub-menu are suboptimal. And in terms of being a power user and needing speed and accuracy, it is counter-intuitive in a not-good way to be forced to search and work with web pages from left to right. The opposite of where you start, how you read, and how you work across the screen. And yet the floating search/address bar pushes right with each new tab opened, favoring the tab used over the new work being started. There is no option to make the search/address bar persistent or to pin it. And you can customize the toolbar and return tools like "Home", but not share sheet. It's oddly weird what's allowed in customization and what can't be added back for users who have established workflows. I actually care less about UI aesthetics than I do about UX consistency. Especially when considering those that work against intuitive work patterns like left to right for English readers.

 

[RandomDSdevel]

-----Another thing: I think it would be useful to enable someone to be 'in charge' of playback controls in SharePlay, locking them for everyone else, so that first person could be the DJ or 'have the remote,' so to speak. Otherwise, I could foresee some group sessions experience their members fighting over where to scrub to if they have violent enough of a disagreement on that for it to be a problem.

 

[dburkhanaev]

doesn’t everyone just cmd-r to reload?

Sometimes. But if my cursor is at the top and I’m manipulating something in the toolbar I like to strike it. Admittedly it’s rare, but between making the toolbar customizable for user convenience and having an engineer at Apple just arbitrarily decide, I opt for leaving it to the user. And as I stated, oddly the home page button is there. I haven’t used a homepage in so long, but it’s there and not the reload button?

I can’t remember the last time I actually used the forward/back keys instead of just using the trackpad gesture. But it should be an option for the user I think.

it’s my personal opinion. Browser UIs on small screens like iPhones aren’t that big a deal. Much about safari in iOS 15 seems like poor UI or poor UX choices as well such as the removal of a one-touch share sheet. But on my desktop/laptop computer with a full fledged OS, I am expecting I can do real work and much more of it and much more quickly and efficiently.

If ever there were a case to be made for UI customization by the end user, surely it’s on MacOS where screens are much larger and a full size, richer environment is available. The notion that you have to permanently take UI controls from the user and permanently push them into a harder to use sub menu, which is a small three dot submenu, of the address bar- or key commands, is a harder argument for me to make.

TL/DR : I don’t disagree with you that key shortcuts are often more efficient. But the short of it should be that customization should remain for the user in the OS environment which can most easily accommodate it.