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Apple updated many of its built-in apps in iOS 26, and Safari is one of the apps that has several notable changes. There's a new look, an updated layout, and a new feature set.

iOS-26-Safari-Features.jpg

This guide features all of the changes you can expect to see in Safari when iOS 26 launches to the public this fall.

Liquid Glass Design

Safari adopts the same Liquid Glass design as the rest of Apple's apps, and you'll primarily see it in the address bar, tab view, and buttons.

safari-liquid-glass.jpg

The buttons and tab bar have the Liquid Glass translucent look, and more of the background of each website is visible beneath them. The tab bar is more compact and it takes up less space, and everything is rounder.

When you scroll down, the tab bar collapses down and you just see a small bar with the website URL, so the entire focus is on the website content. Scrolling back up returns the tab bar to its full size.

Updated Layout

There is a new compact design option in iOS 26, but Apple left the option to use the previous Top and Bottom tab view layouts if you prefer those. Layout options are available in the Safari section of the Settings app.

ios-26-safari-design-light-mode.jpg

Compact tucks away the share, bookmark, and tab options behind the three-dot button on the left of the tab bar. It's a cleaner look, but it may be frustrating if you often need to access features like the tab menu. There is a back arrow, which splits into forward and back arrow options when you're navigating through content. Settings like Translate and Reader mode are still available by tapping on the small icon next to the URL.

ios-26-safari-options.jpg

The Top and Bottom views offer the same setup that's available in iOS 18, but with a new Liquid Glass look. Both bars are slimmed down, and no longer take up the full width of the display.

ios-26-safari-menu-collapsed.jpg

Tab management has been overhauled with the same design changes. The "+" button to open a new tab is still located on the left, and there's now a blue checkmark when you're done interacting with tabs. In the center of the tab view, there's a slider bar that shows your current number of open tabs in the tab group that you're in.

ios-26-safari-tabs.jpg

Swiping from left to right allows you to quickly swap between your tab groups. Changing profiles can be done with a dropdown menu at the top of the display, and other tab management tools are available by tapping on the "···" icon.

Web Apps

When you add a website to your Home Screen in iOS 26, it will always open as a web app. Web apps have been supported on the Home Screen in earlier versions of iOS, but web developers needed to configure them to operate as web apps.

ios-26-web-apps.jpg

If websites weren't configured properly, they would open in Safari when added to the Home Screen. Now a website will open as a dedicated web app, even if it hasn't been explicitly set up to work that way.

There is an Open as Web App option that can be toggled off when adding a website to a Home Screen if you prefer that websites open up in Safari.

Tracking Prevention

Advanced fingerprinting protection now extends to all browsing by default, rather than only being turned on by default for private web browsing. Apple's fingerprinting protection features are meant to keep websites from tracking your device usage across websites.

ios-26-tracking-protection.jpg

HDR Images

iOS 26 adds HDR image support to Safari. HDR images have a wider dynamic range for brighter whites and deeper blacks, along with improved color gamut. P3 HDR images will now appear as intended in Safari on iPhones with XDR displays.

SVG Icons

Safari supports the SVG file format for icons wherever icons appear in the interface, including the start page, web apps, Safari tabs, menus, and more.

SVGs are superior to PNGs because they can be scaled up without a loss of quality, and in Safari, icons often need to appear at multiple different sizes.

WebGPU

Safari in iOS 26 includes WebGPU, a feature that Apple has been testing in Safari Technology Preview. WebGPU is similar to WebGL, but it maps more directly to Metal and the underlying iPhone hardware. WebGPU isn't a user facing feature that you'll be able to use directly, but there will be benefits from it.

Web-based games will be able to achieve higher frame rates and better effects with lower CPU load, plus photo editors, 3D modeling sites, CAD viewers, and websites that do on-device ML should run faster while using less battery. WebGPU requires an iPhone 15 Pro or later.

Digital Credentials API

Apple added support for the W3C Digital Credentials API to Safari, which means a website is able to request identity documents like a driver's license from Apple Wallet for private and secure identity and age verification.

ios-26-id-verify-on-web.jpg

The Verify with Wallet on the Web feature in iOS 26 uses the Digital Credentials API and takes advantage of biometric authentication. Websites can ask customers for information like date of birth without receiving unnecessary extra data, and customers can approve the data sharing with Face ID or Touch ID.

The first websites that will support the Verify with Wallet on the Web feature include Chime, Turo, Uber Eats, and U.S. Bank.

Privacy Improvements

The iOS 26 version of Safari prevents known fingerprinting scripts from accessing web APIs that can reveal device characteristics like screen dimensions, cutting down on the ways that advertisers can track you across websites. These scripts are also blocked from setting long-lived storage like cookies, and from reading query parameters t... Click here to read rest of article

Article Link: Safari in iOS 26: Everything New From Design to Privacy
 
I don’t understand how we want to implement dark mode across the system, but not even be able to do it for Safari. I already know about NOIR. But this is something that Apple should’ve implemented to begin with when enabling ‘dark mode’. It’s wild that we don’t have a dark mode for Safari yet. 🤷‍♂️
 
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I don’t understand how we want to implement dark mode across the system, but not even be able to do it for Safari. I already know about NOIR. But this is something that Apple should’ve been able to begin with with their dark mode. It’s wild that we don’t have a dark mode for Safari yet. 🤷‍♂️

Safari's interface has supported the system's dark mode since it appeared – I suppose you're referring to a feature that applies a dark theme to pages that don't offer their own?

I agree that would be a great feature for Safari to include. (Meanwhile, I'm glad for smaller developers that it's still their market.)
 
Those floating controls are gimmicky. They make it harder to discern UI chrome from content, making the UI look more busy, while still obstructing the content beneath them, so having little benefit.

I also hope there will be an option to tone down the HDR. On YouTube, HDR videos are often too bright compared to SDR, and no way to turn it off.
 
I’m confused. I’m a web developer and designer and I’ve been using SVGs in my designs for at least 12 or 13 years. They’ve been pretty widely supported n that time, used to have a PNG fallback for logos and such.
 
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Compact tucks away the share, bookmark, and tab options behind the three-dot button on the left of the tab bar. It's a cleaner look, but it may be frustrating if you often need to access features like the tab menu.
A tip for quickly accessing the tab menu is by sliding up on the address bar. It works in iOS 18 at least, I haven’t installed iOS 26 yet because I’m waiting for the public beta but I would assume it still works.
 
*SVGs are superior in some situations, not all. Maybe not even most. If you want pixel perfect raster is still usually better.
Yeah, let's not put a pro graphic file format as a graphics format in websites ever.

SEO rankings are largely based on page load time... which is impacted by file size and code. Respectfully, that would be insane to use raster files.... which only bloody AI/Photoshop etc. even read and open, and you want those in a web page?

SVG's are usually too big. Webp conversion is nearly lossess with transparency intact and 50%-90%% smaller file size.
 
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I wonder if advanced tracking and fingerprinting protection by default will break any sites.
Probably. Safari can break a web site now without it.

I love Safari all around, I do, but I just don't use it because in the year 2025, it still causes a mess with so many things, and no one is developing around Safari with its small market share. That's why MicroSuck rebuilt edge to basically be re-skinned Chrome with a better security base to it. Enterprise trusts it, and website treat it like Chrome.

Why Apple doesn't do the same. Instead, they force good browser to adopt webkit to run on IOS and cripple them.
 
Looking forward to the Web App controls being in the user's hand. There's some sites that implement the code to tell iOS to be a web app that I'd rather use as a bookmark on the Home Screen while others that don't implement that code that I would rather use as a web app.
 
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I take it older iPhones lack the hardware to natively support the WebGPU optimizations that come with iOS 26. Or is it once again Apple‘s decision to push pre 15 Pro phones into obsolescence?

Looking forward to the newly added ability to display HDR, very nice!
 
More nice bells and whistles yet .... where is the memory management. Even Opera browser had it. Pages eating up massive amounts of memory and no intelligent way to control it. A bit sad about this.
 
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Glad to see that Apple is giving an option as to where the bar can be placed in Safari. Like the changes to web apps. Overall Safari on iOS looks polished. Waiting to use it once I update by phone.
 
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Those floating controls are gimmicky. They make it harder to discern UI chrome from content, making the UI look more busy, while still obstructing the content beneath them, so having little benefit.

I also hope there will be an option to tone down the HDR. On YouTube, HDR videos are often too bright compared to SDR, and no way to turn it off.
I use HDR videos to provide lighting in winter.
 
Probably. Safari can break a web site now without it.

I love Safari all around, I do, but I just don't use it because in the year 2025, it still causes a mess with so many things, and no one is developing around Safari with its small market share. That's why MicroSuck rebuilt edge to basically be re-skinned Chrome with a better security base to it. Enterprise trusts it, and website treat it like Chrome.

Why Apple doesn't do the same. Instead, they force good browser to adopt webkit to run on IOS and cripple them.
Everything being Chrome means that Google dictates how the web works. Safari is the single most important browser (Firefox being a far second) limiting Google’s control over the web.
 
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