Safari Gaining Extension Syncing Across Devices, Web Image Translation Support, and More Later This Fall

[MacRumors]

Later this fall, Safari will be gaining the ability to translate web images with Live Text, support for push web notifications on iOS, extension syncing across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, and more.

With iOS 16 and macOS Ventura, Safari is gaining some small refinements following a more significant redesign last year.

Last year, Apple introduced Safari extensions on iOS and iPadOS, and this year users can enable extension syncing across their iOS, iPadOS, and macOS devices, ensuring a more seamless browsing experience across each platform.

On iOS and macOS, Safari is also gaining Shared Tab Groups, an easy way to share a group of tabs with friends and family. All members of a group can add tabs to the list and collaborate.

For individual Tab Groups, Apple is adding the ability to create dedicated start pages for groups and to pin tabs within Safari Tab groups. Other small changes include improved password recommendations based on-site-specific requirements, cross-device syncing for website settings, and more.

These changes will come as part of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura, all currently being beta tested by developers. A public beta will be available in July, followed by a general release in the fall.

Article Link: Safari Gaining Extension Syncing Across Devices, Web Image Translation Support, and More Later This Fall

 

[seat_hydrant]

It'd be really nice if managing Tab Groups was easier.

Not being able to batch move multiple tabs into an existing Group is a huge miss.

 

[bmac89]

I also noticed (from a photo on the Apple website) that Safari tabs have returned to the classic tab design from pre Monterey. I.e. Rectangular rather than rounded and spaced, with the active tab a lighter colour.

 

[zubikov]

Still a slower browser even w/ powerful hardware behind it.
Still many sites have issues w/ Safari.
Still no sync across PC/Mac browsers (like w/ Chrome), so there's a need to maintain two sets of saved passwords.

 

[raziel101]

Apple should fix bookmark syncing across devices before attempting to sync more consumer data. The amount of cloud sync issues I experience in iOS 15 is a disappointment and worried if it will carry over into iOS 16.

 

[frou]

I'm curious what "Extension Syncing" really means. Just syncing the list of installed extensions between devices? Or syncing their data/configuration too?

An extension I use already supports syncing data/configuration between devices, but only after a manual step on each device where you point it at a folder on iCloud drive to use.

 

[javisan]

Can third party browsers on iOS like Edge finally use extensions as well?

 

[calstanford]

Still a slower browser even w/ powerful hardware behind it.
Still many sites have issues w/ Safari.
Still no sync across PC/Mac browsers (like w/ Chrome), so there's a need to maintain two sets of saved passwords.

Still no proper extensions like UBlock Origin or Bypass Paywalls Clean

 

[4jasontv]

I missed the event, and Dan said there was too much to cover in one video, but I think Safari for Windows would have made it in his initial summary.

 

[maxdefcon]

Still a slower browser even w/ powerful hardware behind it.
Still many sites have issues w/ Safari.
Still no sync across PC/Mac browsers (like w/ Chrome), so there's a need to maintain two sets of saved passwords.

Can you please provide examples of what sites don’t work? I’ve submitted a few bugs to bugs.webkit.org and they were addressed. I see people complain, but don’t take personal accountability to report the issue. It’s tiresome.

Apple should fix bookmark syncing across devices before attempting to sync more consumer data. The amount of cloud sync issues I experience in iOS 15 is a disappointment and worried if it will carry over into iOS 16.

I guess to each his/her own as I’ve never ran into bookmarks not syncing across my multiple devices.

Still no proper extensions like UBlock Origin or Bypass Paywalls Clean

I use Wipr, properly installed as most don’t follow instructions, and don’t get ads on Safari and haven’t seen a YT ad either.

 

[nvmls]

They keep pretending the browser is fine, it's hilarious at this point.

I also noticed (from a photo on the Apple website) that Safari tabs have returned to the classic tab design from pre Monterey. I.e. Rectangular rather than rounded and spaced, with the active tab a lighter colour.

Yea why improve it altogether when they can just break stuff to bring back in the form of "updates".

Compact mode is still so half-baked with so many glitches Mrs. Simmons must be using Edge.

 

[BlendedFrog]

Still no proper extensions like UBlock Origin or Bypass Paywalls Clean

Hold up here...there's an extension that can bypass paywalls? How have I never heard of this majestical invention and what is its name?

 

[andrewxgx]

Still no proper extensions like UBlock Origin or Bypass Paywalls Clean

not apples fault ublock devs dont want to port their extension to Safari, there are some decent alternatives

paywall bypasses on the other hand are questionable in terms of being legal so probably not allowed in the app store

 

[james2538]

I've never gotten Safari tabs or bookmarks to sync consistently across devices so I don't have much hope for extensions.

 

[RouterCFW]

Hold up here...there's an extension that can bypass paywalls? How have I never heard of this majestical invention and what is its name?

You can use AdGuard pro with a bypass filter list

 

[zubikov]

Can you please provide examples of what sites don’t work? I’ve submitted a few bugs to bugs.webkit.org and they were addressed. I see people complain, but don’t take personal accountability to report the issue. It’s tiresome.

I think you're forgetting how the business-to-consumer relationship works. Customers pay a business money for goods and services to be delivered as promised. We owe NOTHING to Apple for free. Why should I spend my time reporting every single website to Apple, for free? If you want to do that, great. Thank you for helping. But it's wrong to imply that we should take personal accountability to report issues. If Apple wants testing done right, they should incentivize users/professional testers.

 

[maxdefcon]

I think you're forgetting how the business-to-consumer relationship works. Customers pay a business money for goods and services to be delivered as promised. We owe NOTHING to Apple for free. Why should I spend my time reporting every single website to Apple, for free? If you want to do that, great. Thank you for helping. But it's wrong to imply that we should take personal accountability to report issues. If Apple wants testing done right, they should incentivize users/professional testers.

I'm still waiting to see an example of a website not working in Safari. You have enough time to complain, so I thought you had the time to report a bug. I apologize for any inconvenience that my comment has brought upon you. People like to complain to just complain I guess.

 

[_Spinn_]

Excited for extension syncing.

I wish Apple would allow proper adblocking like uBlock Origin.

 

[maxdefcon]

Excited for extension syncing.

I wish Apple would allow proper adblocking like uBlock Origin.

Seriously, check out Wipr. It's as good in my opinion. I run Firefox with uBlock and Safari with Wipr... when I compare the two, I don't see anything that Wipr is missing.

 

[zubikov]

I'm still waiting to see an example of a website not working in Safari. You have enough time to complain, so I thought you had the time to report a bug. I apologize for any inconvenience that my comment has brought upon you. People like to complain to just complain I guess.

Off the top of my head:

wageworks.com aka healthequity --> One of the largest benefits admins in the US. Just fails to load half the pages.
optumbank.com --> Large HSA and retirement company in the US, pages routinely not loading / hanging
cnbc.com --> charts not rendering after a few page visits. 86th in US in daily traffic.

Again, I'm the paying customer. It's not my job to volunteer my time so that a 2 trillion dollar privately funded company gets its act together. Apple does some things phenomenally well. Maintaining its web browser is not one of them.

 

[maxdefcon]

Off the top of my head:

wageworks.com aka healthequity --> One of the largest benefits admins in the US. Just fails to load half the pages.
optumbank.com --> Large HSA and retirement company in the US, pages routinely not loading / hanging
cnbc.com --> charts not rendering after a few page visits. 86th in US in daily traffic.

Again, I'm the paying customer. It's not my job to volunteer my time so that a 2 trillion dollar privately funded company gets its act together. Apple does some things phenomenally well. Maintaining its web browser is not one of them.

Can you give me a specific example that I can duplicate right now? You should read The Oz Principle… good book.

 

[brunerd]

Can Safari gain a 4 year old Javascript/ES2018 feature that folks keep beating the drum for 🙉 😁
Bug 174931 - Implement RegExp lookbehind assertions

 

[miniyou64]

I'm still waiting to see an example of a website not working in Safari. You have enough time to complain, so I thought you had the time to report a bug. I apologize for any inconvenience that my comment has brought upon you. People like to complain to just complain I guess.

You must use only a handful of sites. So many things are broken (including Apples OWN DEVELOPER portal - which works fine in Chrome) that it’s impossible to catalogue and give to Apple. Much easier just to switch to a browser that actually works.

 

[nevhoffman]

Still a slower browser even w/ powerful hardware behind it.
Still many sites have issues w/ Safari.
Still no sync across PC/Mac browsers (like w/ Chrome), so there's a need to maintain two sets of saved passwords.

1) Safari is the fastest browser BY FAR. full stop.
2) VERY FEW sites have problems with Safari.
and if you use a Mac AND a PC 1) I'm sorry and 2) use a different browser.
Even if Apple wasted their time on a Safari browser, it would still stuck as the Apple Music and iCloud apps for Windows do.

 

[zubikov]

Can you give me a specific example that I can duplicate right now? You should read The Oz Principle… good book.

Just private messaged you a screenshot of a specific example.