Safari Team Asks for Feedback Amid Accusations That 'Safari Is the Worst, It's the New IE'

[MacRumors]

Apple's Safari and WebKit team has asked for feedback on Twitter amid criticisms of the browser's bugs and missing support.

Jen Simmons, an Apple Evangelist and developer advocate on the Web Developer Experience team for Safari and WebKit, Tweeted that "Everyone in my mentions [is] saying Safari is the worst, it's the new IE." This led her to ask users for feedback, preferably highlighting specific bugs and instances of missing support that inhibits websites and apps.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1491064685327634439

Simmons also urged users who notice bugs that are "several years old and not fixed" to contact her with a link from bugs.webkit.org or a Feedback number from Apple's Feedback Assistant so it can be looked into more closely. The call for feedback has largely been received positively.

Safari has been met with complaints from some users in recent years over the browser's bugs, user experience, and website compatibility. The problems reached fever pitch last year when Apple unveiled a substantial redesign for Safari at WWDC, which was met with widespread criticism that accused the changes of being "counterintuitive." After months of tweaking the ambitious redesign in response to feedback, Apple eventually gave up on the changes just before the public release of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey, reverting to the previous Safari design by default.

Apple has also been criticized for demanding apps that browse the web to use the WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript on iOS and iPadOS, a policy that effectively bans non-WebKit based browsers. This has caught the attention of regulatory agencies, including the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which said that "due to the WebKit restriction, Apple makes decisions on whether to support features not only for its own browser, but for all browsers on iOS." A previous tweet from Simmons appears to suggest the importance of maintaining the WebKit restriction.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1490747578526404608

Following consultation with developers, the CMA is considering forcing Apple to reverse the ban on non-WebKit based browsers to allow for more competition. It is unclear if Apple's latest push for feedback is related to the growing regulatory pressures around Safari.

Article Link: Safari Team Asks for Feedback Amid Accusations That 'Safari Is the Worst, It's the New IE'

 

[MrENGLISH]

I use Safari daily on macOS and iOS and it’s been working great for me. I have no complaints.

 

[ghanwani]

Tabs on top and address bar like Chrome. Of course avoiding careless bugs that allow tracking would be welcome too and show that Apple takes security seriously.

 

[teak421]

I guess I'm odd, but I like Safari. I've been a Windows user for most of my career and just moved to the Mac last year, love it. I also like how the tabs work (compact)... I can't think of any real bugs that I've seen......

 

[StuBeck]

Feel they're going to have issues with the second point. They're a multi-trillion dollar company, asking for unpaid help and then gate keeping on feedback isn't gonna happen anyway. Just ignore the problem if you know its been resolved, or offer incentives for those issues which are accurately reported and help them move forward.

 

[no_idea]

I’d say iOS is the new IE….so many bugs these days from random app freeze/crash, url bar not transitioning from night to daytime mode to where you can’t even read the text, and sharing stuff in messages is a hit or miss most of the time

 

[jenelemond]

Honestly speaking I don't like safari at all! ??

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

I have not came across any major issues or bugs. So far it’s been working great on iOS and macOS. However...

Still, have no idea who came up with this idea? You might as well put tabs on side of the iPhone.

 

[FSMBP]

The UI in the new Safari is awful and unintuitive. On my iPad, it's easy to get confused when typing in the address bar or if I'm typing the Tab Search.

Apple has always been 'keep it simple/easy to use/yet good for Pros". Safari fails on the first two items there.

 

[antnythr]

Safari Dev Team: Point out bugs and things we can fix

Users: *gestures broadly*

Safari Dev Team: No, not those things

 

[SevLucas]

Aside from being just a smidge slower than other browsers (Edge), I think Safari is great. Can't beat the integration with the rest of the Apple ecosystem.

 

[antiprotest]

If anyone on their team asks for feedback, they should do it with humility instead of that tone and then rebuking people for bringing up old stuff. Very off putting and increases the resentment.

In any case, one example is that they need to work with their cloud team and fix the cloud tabs sync issue once and for all. Yeah, that's bringing up old bugs that THEY STILL HAVE NOT FIXED.

Or are the people the real bugs?

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Im a light user and enjoy Safari but slowly things have been frustrating me. The fact I couldn’t look at a bank statement because Safari doesn’t have a PDF viewer was frustrating making me use Chrome. While watching Twitch, Safari eats up so many resources I get memory errors so I need to use Chrome for that as well. Some of the websites I need for work don’t display at all on Safari so Chrome it is again…what’s the point when none of the things I do work in Safari? I really don’t like Chrome but I have to use what works.

Start by separating Safari updates from OS ones on all platforms.

 

[hagjohn]

I think she will be surprised by the large number of replies she will probably get.

 

[nottorp]

What's Safari? Apple had a browser, but then they disabled uBlock Origin on it. So I don't think they have one now?

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

If anyone on their team asks for feedback, they should do it with humility instead of that tone and then rebuking people for bringing up old stuff. Very off putting and increases the resentment.

It’s called being “passive aggressive” and they don’t want feedback which I’m sure they have plenty to sift through already.

How about separating Safari updates from MacOS ones!

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

I think she will be surprised by the large number of replies she will probably get.

I hope to God the bugs being reported actually get fixed.

 

[icanhazmac]

Up until this last vulnerability I quite happily used Safari exclusively on all my Apple devices then switched to Firefox and haven't gone back yet.

Would never consider Chrome.

 

[japasneezemonk]

I use Safari daily on macOS and iOS and it’s been working great for me. I have no complaints.

I think most of the complaints are coming from developers. I'm just a good ol' regular user and Safari works fine for my web browsing needs ?

 

[nothingtoseehere]

I also like Safari. Problem is, IMO, that (too) many websites do not work properly with Safari. Obviously they are optimized for Chrome, and maybe for Firefox. No idea what Apple could do here but if they are not aware, the web moves away from Safari/WebKit.

 

[darkharbour]

I use Safari daily on macOS and iOS and it’s been working great for me. I have no complaints.

Same, Safari has been my main browser for years and it works wonderfully for me, and is far less resource intensive than Chrome, for example.

 

[hagjohn]

I hope to God the bugs being reported actually get fixed.

Exactly. Honestly, they need a release of just bug fixes for all their OS's. All of them are a hot mess with bugs.

 

[1300767]

There are only 2 things that bother me in Safari.

1. Tab switcher is difficult to handle with one hand, this is much better in Samsung phones and Samsung Internet Browser

2. The + button to open a new tab should be on the right side of the screen instead of left side.

 

[citysnaps]

I use Safari daily on macOS and iOS and it’s been working great for me. I have no complaints.

Same here. Use it everyday. Works well. No complaints.

Sadly, that won't give me any cred on internet forums. That's only established with one being super aggrieved and outraged at the drop of a hat. The new normal.

 

[jarman92]

The UI in the new Safari is awful and unintuitive. On my iPad, it's easy to get confused when typing in the address bar or if I'm typing the Tab Search.

Apple has always been 'keep it simple/easy to use/yet good for Pros". Safari fails on the first two items there.

So switch it back?