iOS 15 gives Safari a huge overhaul — here’s what I love (and hate)

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iOS 15 gives Safari a huge overhaul — here'due south what I love (and hate)

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

iOS xv packs in a lot of changes for the built-in apps on your iPhone. Just the biggest overhaul to an existing app tin can exist found in Safari. Not only does iOS 15 add together new capabilities to your phone's congenital-in browser, it revamps the very expect of Safari itself.

Safari'south overhaul isn't limited to the iPhone. Both macOS Monterey and iPadOS 15 change the look of the browser on both Macs and iPads, opting for a more streamlined arroyo. iOS 15'due south version takes a very phone-centric approach that's unique to the iPhone's more than limited screen real estate. The results, frankly, are a bit of a mixed bag.

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I've spent some fourth dimension with iOS xv's Safari as part of my iOS 15 beta hands-on review. While some of the changes introduced by Apple tree are certainly welcome, others will require a little getting used to — and maybe even some tweaks by Apple earlier the final version of iOS xv ships this fall.

Here'southward a closer look at what's new in iOS 15 Safari, in improver to which changes are hits and which ones are misses.

iOS fifteen Safari's new customizable first folio is not bad

The start page — that place in Safari that houses your bookmarks, reading list, frequently visited pages and other browsing activities — gets the makeover you didn't know information technology needed. And this new look figures to exist very satisfying, as information technology's y'all making all the changes.

(Image credit: Toms Guide)

iOS 15 Safari lets you customize the start page to your liking. That means you tin can change the order in which sections appear or remove them entirely. You besides get the choice of adding a groundwork paradigm to the start folio — Apple offers its ain backgrounds, though y'all tin as well select an image from your photograph library. And there's a button for making certain that your start page syncs beyond all your different Apple devices (assuming they're running the latest Apple software, besides.)

To get to your offset folio, tap the tab bar at the bottom of the screen — aye, I know, nosotros're going to talk about that soon — and scroll all the way to the lesser of the page to edit what appears in that location. Yous have the option of showing favorite pages, oft visited sites, links that have been shared with you, Apple'southward privacy report, Siri's suggested web pages, your reading list, and tabs you have open in other devices. You can likewise use the three horizontal bars to motion around what gild those items appear in.

You may not make any changes at all or you may decide that a background image isn't to your liking. The point is, Apple puts the command in your hands, and that's probably the best addition to iOS xv Safari.

The other great new characteristic in Safari on iOS 15 is 1 that's actually included across multiple apps. Shared with You has its home in Messages, but it extends to Safari, as well as Photos, Podcasts, Apple tree Music, Apple News and Apple tree Tv.

(Epitome credit: Tom's Guide)

Here's how information technology works — when someone shares something with you via Messages, it volition appear in a newly added Shared with Yous section of the relevant app. In the case of Safari, that means whatever web links will be stacked up in Shared with You on your Safari start page, and so that y'all tin click through to the links at your leisure without having to dig back to Messages to notice them.

Even better, if you feel compelled to reply to the person who sent you lot the link, you tin do so directly from Safari. Only tap the name of the person underneath the shared link, and a messaging window will pop up, allowing you to text a reply. It's a convenient manner of following upwards without having to shuffle back and forth between apps.

Tab Groups is a promising feature, though maybe not for mobile

Whatever Apple tree device you lot're running Safari on, the new version adds a feature called Tab Groups. The name tells you all you lot need to know — instead of keeping a lot of individual tabs open, you can group related ones together, contracting and expanding those tabs on a demand-to-browse basis.

(Image credit: Tom'southward Guide)

I haven't used macOS Monterey still, but I imagine that Tab Groups really cuts down the ataxia on the Mac version of Safari. That's less of a concern on the iPhone, where tabs are tucked away. Accessing your Tab Groups in iOS 15 is non necessarily intuitive, either. You tap on the double folio icon to view all your tabs **and and then** tap on the tab bar on the lesser of the screen to pull up your available Tab Groups. (Like many features in Safari, Tab Groups follow you beyond your different Apple devices.) Select your Tab Group by tapping and the taps spread out into a grid-like view of page thumbnails.

That's a lot of tapping to become to Tab Groups, but the organizational feature is a lot better than swiping through all those fanned out tabs in iOS 14. I collect a lot of online recipes, and the Tab Groups view provides a much handier interface for picking the linked recipe that I desire for dinner or switching over betwixt recipes if I'k prepping more one dish.

Tab Groups may be a more than appropriate fit on the Mac or iPad, but I'm however glad it'southward included with iOS 15 Safari.

Yous can search using your vocalisation in iOS 15 Safari

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Tap the Tab Bar at the bottom of the screen — trust me, nosotros're getting to that — and y'all'll now see a microphone icon appear in the far correct of the text field. Tap the mic and you can dictate your search term to Siri. The moment you're done talking, the search takes identify automatically, without you having to tap or type annihilation else. It'southward very convenient.

The placement of iOS 15'due south Tab Bar is very jarring

Then about that Tab Bar. As in the other Safari revamps, it's been streamlined equally a identify to enter both URLs and search terms. It's also been moved to the bottom of your screen in iOS 15 Safari, though there's some method to Apple's apparent madness. Placing the Tab Bar downwards there puts it in easy attain of your pollex, enabling i-handed browsing even on iPhones with larger screens — or so the statement in favor of the move goes.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Charitably, I'd say this switch will have some getting used to. I've been using the iOS 15 beta for a couple weeks at present, and I still find myself tapping the peak of the Safari folio and being surprised when I can't enter in a URL. It doesn't help that a lot of web pages have headers that look a lot like tab confined. Your heart — and your finger — is naturally fatigued at that place, specially with Apple tucking away the Tab Bar when it's non in use.

That creates a more than pressing problem than not being used to the placement of the Tab Bar. Yous summon it by tapping, and you lot don't have a lot of screen real estate to work with. The tab bar is housed simply above the bar you swipe to leave apps. A lot of modernistic web sites also stick ads at the bottom of their page. So, essentially, you've got an advertising and an app switching bar and a modest Tab Bar strip wedged between them. A pocket-sized thermal frazzle port on a fully operational Decease Star makes for a more than inviting target.

Navigation in iOS 15 Safari is also complicated

If y'all recollect it's hard tapping the Tab Bar, merely wait until you try to navigate betwixt tabs in iOS 15 Safari. You practise this past swiping left or right, which is certainly natural enough. But to successfully swipe, yous've got to get-go tap the tab bar and then swipe on top of information technology. Forget that start step and you'll swipe your way right out of Safari and into the last app you lot had open up (if you're swiping right). It'due south very annoying and I promise Apple makes the swiping easier to pull off before the terminal version of iOS xv comes out.

The jury'southward all the same out on web extensions in iOS 15 Safari

There'southward i feature in iOS 15 Safari that I haven't really tested yet. Apple's built-in browser now supports web extensions, the first time you tin can say that in 14 years of the iPhone. According to Apple tree, you tin can customize your iPhone-based version of Safari as much as y'all accept on the Mac.

I'm not the intended audience for this, as I don't make much use of extensions for Safari on my MacBook Air. Just more to the signal, I don't know that there's many iOS Safari-ready web extensions to be used with iOS 15 Safari at this betoken. That's probable to change every bit more developers spend more time with the beta, but for now, let's simply file web extension support under "Sounds promising."

iOS 15 Safari outlook

The new version of Safari on the iPhone has a lot going for it, while a few design changes are working against information technology. Unfortunately, the latter threaten to overwhelm the sometime. Every bit welcome every bit the customizable smart page and Shared with You are, the frustrations of navigating through Safari outweigh those benefits. Possibly that volition ease up with fourth dimension — or even improve, with some modest intervention from Apple.

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Philip Michaels is a senior editor at Tom'due south Guide. He has strong opinions about Apple, the Oakland Athletics and old movies. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/ios-15-gives-safari-a-huge-overhaul-heres-what-i-love-and-hate

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