It might come as quite a surprise to learn that Apple’s Safari browser is more than 20 years old. It first made an appearance as the default browser onMacback in January 2003 and it was intended to be a faster browser for the Mac than the other popular browsers at the time, like Internet Explorer and Netscape. In the two decades that followed, Safari has seen some big changes. It was one of the first apps to appear on the original iPhone, and then made its way to theiPadtoo when the first model appeared in 2010.
Today, Safari is still an excellent browser for Mac,iPhone, and iPad, and there are a lot of features that you may be totally unaware of. Here are some of the best Safari tips and tricks you should take advantage of.
Safari tips and tricks on Mac
Thanks to the power ofiCloud, you may sync your browsing across all your Apple devices, from your iPhone to your Mac. If you set up tab groups on your iPhone or iPad, you can see those same groups on your Mac, and vice versa. However, each version of the browser has its own unique tricks, many of which are definitely worth knowing.
Turn any website into an app
A new feature in the latest version of Safari, is that it’s now possible to take any website andturn it into an appthat will appear in your dock. A Safari web app is a little different from a standard page in Safari, as it doesn’t store any history, cookies, or other website data. It’s also more streamlined, with just three buttons: back, forward, and share. If there’s a streaming site you use that doesn’t have its own app, for example, you can make one with just a few clicks.
Use profiles to keep your browsing separated
Another new feature in the latest version of Safari is the ability to create different profiles. These profiles allow you to save completely different sets of Safari preferences. Your browsing history, bookmarks, cookies, and website data will only be saved within your profile so sites you visit in your Work profile for example, won’t appear in the history for your Personal profile.
Create tab groups to make tabs easier to find
If you don’t want to use profiles, you can use tab groups to keep your browsing more organised. Tab groups allow you to group collections of tabs together. When you open the group, you’ll just see the tabs saved within that group. You can create as many different tab groups as you wish, and they will sync across your Apple devices.
Use picture-in-picture for better multitasking
If you’re watching a video on a website, you might want to be able to keep browsing as you do so. Using thepicture-in-picture featurein Safari allows you to break out the video from the webpage, so that you can keep watching it and carry on browsing, even in other tabs or apps.
Quickly get back to search results using SnapBack
Have you ever fallen down a browsing rabbit hole? You do a web search, click one of the results, find an interesting link on that page and click it. Then you find an even more interesting link on that page. Before you know it, you’re ten pages from where you first started.
Now you want to get back to your original search results. That’s going to involve a lot of clicking the back button, right? Well, not if you use the clever SnapBack feature. It will take you right back to those search results, skipping all the pages in between.
Quickly close multiple tabs
If you find that you’ve got too many tabs open, you may not like the thought of having to close each one manually. The good news is that you don’t have to. You can quickly close multiple tabs in Safari in just a couple of clicks.
Safari tips and tricks on iPad
Safari on the iPad also has some tricks of its own, some of which won’t work on Mac or iPhone. Most of the tricks from the section below on iPhone tips and tricks will also work on iPad, however.
Use tabs in Split View
Split Viewis a useful iPad feature for working with multiple apps at once. It works by splitting the screen into two sections, with a different app running in each. However, it’s also possible to use Split View for two different Safari tabs.
Merge Safari windows back into tabs
If you’ve been working with multiple separate windows of Safari, rather than using tabs within the same window, it’s possible to quickly merge all of your open Safari windows back into tabs.
Bookmark multiple tabs at once
If you’ve got multiple tabs open, and you want to save all of them so that you’re able to access them later, you might go through each one in turn and save it as a bookmark. However, there’s a much quicker way which allows you to bookmark all of your currently open tabs.
Sort your tabs by title or website
The extra real estateon the iPadallows you to view a lot of tabs at once. However, finding the right tab can still be tricky if you have a lot of them open. It’s possible to sort your tabs by title or by website to make it easier to find the one you want.
Safari tips and tricks on iPhone
Mobile browsing is the common way that people access the internet these days, so knowing some useful iPhone Safari tricks can help.
Quickly scroll back to the top of the page
You’ve been engrossed in an interesting article and have scrolled a long way through as you read. You now want to go back to the top of the page so you can access the menu. That means a lot of scrolling to get back to the top, or you can simply tap somewhere around the top of your iPhone screen like the clock or thebattery icon. This will automatically scroll the current web page back to the top.
Close all tabs at once
Do you find your iPhone gets filled with hundreds of tabs when you’re browsing? If so, you might be too daunted to even think about closing them all. Thankfully, there is a quick way toclose all of your tabsat once.
Set your tabs to close automatically
If even this seems like too much effort, you can get Safari to automatically close your tabs for you. You can have this happen every day, every week, or every month.
Open a new tab with a gesture
Why do two taps when a single gesture will do the job? If you want to open a new Safari tab, you can tap theTab Overviewicon and then tap the+ (plus)icon to make a new tab appear. If you’re a true Safari legend, however, then instead, you’ll just swipe left on the URL bar of the current tab, and a new one will open like magic. Swiping right willtake you to your previous tabs, too.
