I was a fan of Safari's previous "compact" tabs mode in which there was only ONE bar on the top of Safari windows, the search box was literally inside the selected tab. has this disappeared?
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Safari - compact tabs - gone?
- Thread starter petekjohnson
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Yup it’s gone in the current betas. :-(
You can give feedback requesting it back.
You can give feedback requesting it back.
Yeah not there currently. Already submitted feedback myself. I know a lot of people hated compact tabs, but I was a massive fan. Hoping they just hadn’t got around to updating them for liquid glass yet and they make a comeback.
I fear it's precisely due to all the irrational hate the feature got at launch (including on these very forums) that it never received the needed attention, maintenance and updates throughout the few years of its existence and has now been axed entirely.
I also blame John Gruber, for possibly being the main opponent of the feature. I saw multiple times citations of his articles about how it's wrong because the dynamic colors and inbuilt URLs and pill-shaped tabs make him uncomfortable and don't "look like real-world tabs" and how he wants his beloved separate bars instead. Weird guy. To think he created Markdown...
Little did he know, pill shaped tabs are back with a vengeance. And this time they are mandatory.
Made me "uncomfortable", too. Here's an old example of two windows where, in each case, the first tab is active.
Tahoe is at least slightly better about this due to tabs looking vaguely three-dimensional...
Second version makes sense. First one just looks like a bad design decision. Making the active tab dimmer than the inactive ones would look wrong regardless of tab shape.
Then I have bad news for you considering what tabs on dark backgrounds look like in Tahoe...
Yeah this Safari version seems like a downgrade in every single way...
Seriously...? I just installed the macOS 26 RC and noticed that compact tabs are gone. I loved this feature...
Noooo I embraced compact tabs because it seems to be the direction they were heading. Now I'm used to it and really like it!
I so much loved the compact tabs in Safari. Now, they're gone! And so is Launchpad, and we are now back to the Apps folder.
We went back in time... Why, Apple, why???
We went back in time... Why, Apple, why???
Launchpad was just so nice, but I'd like to think it's a rare instance of Apple opening an opportunity for the best third-party developers rather than the more familiar instances of closing them.
And I sure hope the single-bar Safari interface is just temporarily being re-optimized.
And I sure hope the single-bar Safari interface is just temporarily being re-optimized.
It’s terrible, now safari looses space, why on iOS 26 they made safari more compact but macOS the removed it
I have a theory that everything at Apple was subordinated to Cook's greatest creation—the Vision Pro. They spent a ton of money on this device, wasted even more time, and when it turned out that Cook's vision went in an entirely different direction than the rest of the world, they were caught offside.
Every subsequent move was a nervous attempt to catch up (with Apple Intelligence) and then an attempt to distract from the fact that the emperor had no clothes (Liquid Glass). I'm convinced Liquid Glass wasn't supposed to appear until the iPhone 20. However, without it, it would be clear that Apple has nothing to show for it. Even with watches and 24-hour battery life, they employed a modified methodology, incorporating a sleep mode. By this calculation, the Series 9 even lasted 24 hours without charging.
Every subsequent move was a nervous attempt to catch up (with Apple Intelligence) and then an attempt to distract from the fact that the emperor had no clothes (Liquid Glass). I'm convinced Liquid Glass wasn't supposed to appear until the iPhone 20. However, without it, it would be clear that Apple has nothing to show for it. Even with watches and 24-hour battery life, they employed a modified methodology, incorporating a sleep mode. By this calculation, the Series 9 even lasted 24 hours without charging.
Please everyone dont forget to submit feedback to Apple. Love my Compact tabs!
I will stay on iOS 18, macOS Sequoia, iPadOS 18, and tvOS. Yesterday, I even bought an Apple Watch Series 10 with WatchOS 11. 
The thing that LG does look cheap is not the worst, but all those bubbles and the extra clicks required to get anything... It's not good UI at all.
The thing that LG does look cheap is not the worst, but all those bubbles and the extra clicks required to get anything... It's not good UI at all.
I miss my extra line of safari .. but overall im happy with the experience on my MBP so far.
Safari just looks terribly clunky and its interface dated. Don’t get me started on the tab design. Ugh.
Right?! I actually love iOS 26's Safari for it. And thanks to the liquid-аssified UI you get an almost-fullscreen experience since the URL bar is nearly transparent. It was actually entirely transparent in Beta 1 which I found super-practical, but sadly folks started whining again because it wasn't something they were used to (just like they were whining when compact tabs on Mac and iPad were introduced) so they had to dial it back.
The Compact Tabs option was great. Provided a little more vertical space on a MacBook. I definitely miss it.
This is the only thing I hate about Mac OS Tahoe. I preferred the extra screen space... I hope they bring this back.
I know right? They made safari on iOS look more minimalistic and seamless and on MacOS it looks heavier than ever and clunky.
WHY?!
I am bummed that macOS 26 removed Compact Tabs in Safari. I loved the additional vertical space. Not sure why it was removed, just leave it there for the 10% of people who may use it???