Safari, Apple’s web browser, stands up well against Chrome in terms of speed and security. Optimized specifically for Apple devices, its Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature helps safeguard privacy.
Safari’s minimalist interface may divide opinion, with many preferring it over others. But there are ways you can improve your experience using it with some hacks you can implement to enhance it further.
Safari for Mac
Safari, Apple’s web browser preloaded onto devices like iPhones, iPads and macOS computers is an elegant alternative to Internet Explorer and Chrome. Its minimalist interface makes it intuitive for newcomers; more in-depth features and customization options can be found for power users. Safari was designed to be fast, secure, energy efficient and battery friendly – helping extend battery life on MacBook batteries and making life more manageable in general. iCloud syncs your browsing across all your Apple devices seamlessly.
Safari features Reader View, which detects articles and strips away navigation and ads to make them more readable, sharing websites directly through messaging apps or email. In addition, Safari supports Touch ID and Face ID login security measures and autofill passwords from auto-fill lists securely stored in the cloud; bookmarks, Reading List, iCloud Tabs can all be synced across desktop and iOS versions of the app; web history archives in WebArchive format as well as synced Safari Extensions across your profiles are other capabilities of the browser.
Safari browser is also an invaluable development platform, supporting a range of APIs that enable extensions to control window, tab and popover management as well as blocking notifications and link following in iOS apps. Safari’s extensions library includes popular PDF downloaders, RSS readers and image editors – just a few tools.
Safari is automatically updated alongside macOS, and utilizes Apple’s security architecture. This ensures that any websites you visit do not appear in your macOS Activity Log and that iCloud Tabs allow seamless browsing between Mac and iPad. Furthermore, Safari protects against phishing and malware sites which attempt to gain access to your data by injecting malicious code into websites or using them to gain entry directly onto your computer.
Apple-developed WebKit engine, used by iPhone and iPad Safari as well as Mac OS X, runs on all Apple hardware. It’s a modern standards-based web browser equipped with advanced security features to protect against malware infections or suspicious websites, while being more energy efficient than competing browsers – saving precious minutes or hours between charging sessions on laptops.
Safari for iOS
Safari, Apple’s web browser built into their iPhone and iPad devices, features many useful features for mobile users such as its reading view that strips websites of distracting ads and navigation while presenting content more like it would appear when read on an ebook reader. Safari is also more energy efficient than many popular browsers – using less CPU cycles – helping save battery life for longer usage time.
This browser is compatible with most major third-party extensions, including ones for social media and photo galleries. The UI resembles that of other browsers; an address bar sits atop the screen with tabs stacked to its right; these tabs can also be rearranged – particularly handy on an iPad’s smaller display! Furthermore, “Security” features allow users to scan suspicious sites and block them.
Safari uses iCloud to synchronize passwords, bookmarks, history and tabs between Mac, iOS and iPad devices – meaning you can search, shop or work on your iPhone then pick up from where you left off on any iPad or Mac later. Furthermore, Handoff lets you share what’s happening within an app with another nearby Apple device – or even an Android phone via Shared Tabs!
Safari includes features designed to make browsing on the go more efficient, such as Touch ID and Face ID support for logging into websites, the ability to swipe to refresh pages, auto-fill website forms and autofill for web forms. Furthermore, this app integrates seamlessly with iCloud Keychain which helps protect sensitive information like credit card numbers or login details.
Safari also includes several experimental WebKit features that developers can activate. End users should generally not activate these features; however, Apple technical support may request you turn them on for diagnostic purposes. Examples of such features are “Activate GPU Process: DOM Rendering and WebGL”, ImageBitmap Lazy Image Loading API Modern Encrypted Media API”.
Safari Extensions
Safari Extensions add new tools and functionality to your browser, giving you greater control of how you browse the internet. From blocking ads and tracking cookies to finding deals while shopping and saving pages offline for reading later, extensions give your browser serious superpowers – with such a wide variety of extensions available, there is sure to be one perfect for you!
Extensions work seamlessly in Safari on Mac, iPhone, or iPad devices. Installing them from the dedicated Safari Extensions category of the App Store is quick and simple; plus you can manage them directly through Settings app.
Safari extensions are software that works in the background to improve your browsing experience and add features that enhance it. Ad blockers allow you to block distracting ads that slow down browser performance and interrupt focus; security and privacy tools protect devices by blocking harmful or suspicious content, while 1Password helps securely manage passwords while browsing.
Extensions allow Safari and another app to communicate, for instance Bear, which provides note taking capabilities, has an extension that makes copying text and images from web pages into Bear easier. With Tab Groups available for managing extensions it makes staying organized even simpler while browsing.
Developers can build Safari Web Extensions using standard web technologies and publish them via Apple’s App Store. These extensions can access content on web pages to provide new customizations that you can control with Safari Preferences.
Safari app extensions are particularly beneficial in that they allow native apps to communicate and integrate their capabilities within the web browsing experience on iPhone, iPad and Mac devices. App extensions may read webpages to give you new tools or information; or send data back from websites into apps for a seamless unified experience.
Apple conducts rigorous tests and reviews on every extension published to the App Store to ensure their quality. If an extension does not comply with Apple guidelines, you can reach out directly to its developer and request changes or report issues.
Tab Groups
Tab Groups in Safari makes it simple and efficient to keep work and personal tabs separate, or simply quickly identify those needed for later. Like Google Chrome’s own Tab Groups feature, Safari Tab Groups offer an effective solution for organizing tabs into groups for later use. It makes managing multiple browser tabs much more manageable; perfect for keeping you organized!
To create a Tab Group in Safari, tap the tab button in the toolbar. This will bring up a menu with options to “New Tab Group With [x] Tabs,” or long press on a set of tabs to get them. From here you can select a group name and number of tabs you would like included as part of it – they will appear as labels next to its icon.
Once a group has been created, you can quickly access it at any time by selecting the sidebar icon in Safari’s top-left corner and choosing its group from its list. From here you can access all tabs within that group as well as view or modify its name or color if necessary; additionally you may move tabs between groups and rename it altogether if necessary; only individual pinned tabs cannot be grouped; they must remain individually.
Tab Groups sync across Apple devices, so you can access them on both an iPhone or iPad running iOS 15/iPadOS 15 as well as macOS Monterey. If you wish to delete one, long-pressing its icon and selecting “Delete from contextual popup menu”.
Overall, Tab Groups is an effective feature that will ultimately increase productivity over the long haul. It provides a convenient way to organize tabs so they are readily available when needed and decrease visual clutter while browsing – especially helpful if you frequently open multiple tabs at once! Give it a try now to see if it helps make you more efficient and organized!
