Tab Display On iPhone On 26 Versus ios 18

[papbot]

One thing about the current set up of Safari in ios 26 on my phone is that I can’t tell whether I have other tabs open without tapping the ellipsis (…) in compact view or the tabs icon in the bottom or top view. What I want to see is the other tabs displayed to the right or left of the currently open tab as it was in ios 18, as shown in my screenshot below. Is there any way to do this?

 

[Maloney~888]

Change tabs in Safari settings from “compact” to “bottom” view.

 

[papbot]

Change tabs in Safari settings from “compact” to “bottom” view.

That doesn’t do it. The only way to see if you have other tabs open is to tap the ellipsis (…) in compact view or the tabs icon( the 2 pages overlap) in bottom or top view. I’ve found no way to get the display in my image above from iOS 18.

 

[BigBlur]

There's no way to get the tabs to show on the sides, but you can swipe left or right on the address/search bar. That will switch between tabs if you have any. You can also swipe up on that bar or pinch to zoom out on the page to see all your open tabs.

 

[papbot]

There's no way to get the tabs to show on the sides, but you can swipe left or right on the address/search bar. That will switch between tabs if you have any. You can also swipe up on that bar or pinch to zoom out on the page to see all your open tabs.

Thanks, that’s what I’ve discovered. I frequently switch to other apps or tasks and may not come back to the phone and Safari for a while. In all previous OSes it would be obvious that I have other tabs open. I guess now I either have to remember or manually check every time. That’s inconvenient and puzzling why that functionality would have been removed. There’s certainly enough room, especially in compact view, to display the other tabs.

 

[Maloney~888]

Thanks, that’s what I’ve discovered. I frequently switch to other apps or tasks and may not come back to the phone and Safari for a while. In all previous OSes it would be obvious that I have other tabs open. I guess now I either have to remember or manually check every time. That’s inconvenient and puzzling why that functionality would have been removed. There’s certainly enough room, especially in compact view, to display the other tabs.

I suppose they want to keep compact, compact. At least you can swipe left/right to see if you have any other tabs or swipe up from address bar. Not perfect for what you are after but keeps it simplified or not if you require visible tabs either side of address bar.

 

[papbot]

I suppose they want to keep compact, compact. At least you can swipe left/right to see if you have any other tabs or swipe up from address bar. Not perfect for what you are after but keeps it simplified or not if you require visible tabs either side of address bar.

It does keep it simplified, just not as user friendly as every prior release. I found complaints here about this from back in July so I’ll just have to get used to it. I wasn’t using 26 on my phone till it was generally released. On my ipad Safari tabs are fully functional so I wasn’t expecting this.

 

[Maloney~888]

It does keep it simplified, just not as user friendly as every prior release. I found complaints here about this from back in July so I’ll just have to get used to it. I wasn’t using 26 on my phone till it was generally released. On my ipad Safari tabs are fully functional so I wasn’t expecting this.

Maybe they tweak it along the way?

 

[papbot]

Maybe they tweak it along the way?

That would be nice, but here we are in 26.1 and no show. I use the bottom view on my phone, and when I saw there was a compact view, I was hopeful that would be the one that would have that function. There’s so much room around the URL field.🤷‍♂️