With MacOS Monterey, Apple no longer will consolidate Safari's address bar and tab strip into one zone at the top of the web browser. Apple on Wednesd

Apple drops radical Safari tab changes in new MacOS Monterey beta

submited by
Style Pass
2021-07-15 12:30:16

With MacOS Monterey, Apple no longer will consolidate Safari's address bar and tab strip into one zone at the top of the web browser.

Apple on Wednesday stepped back from overhauling how its Safari web browser handles tabs on MacOS. The company released a third beta of its new MacOS Monterey software that separates the address box and the tab strip by default, moving back to same design that's in the existing MacOS Big Sur version.

The change shows how difficult it can be to modernize user interfaces. One person can see a redesign as simpler, while another sees it as stripped of utility.

One purpose of beta tests is to gather feedback, and Apple evidently listened to complaints that arrived in the five weeks since Apple revealed the very different Safari tab approach at its WWDC developer conference in June. The new approach tucked the address bar into the active website's tab and squeezed other buttons for navigation, website privacy information and extensions toward the left. Apple software chief Craig Federighi touted it as a cleaner new approach.

"We think using the browser should feel natural and uncluttered," Federighi said in a June keynote speech when he revealed what Apple had planned to be the new look. "So we've reimagined the browsing experience. We distilled the toolbar to its essential elements. Tabs are more compact, modern and lightweight."

Leave a Comment