New Safari 15.1 beta for macOS Big Sur and Catalina reverts to standard tab design

Apple on Wednesday issued a new beta version of Safari 15.1 that reverts controversial "Compact" tab design changes back to a more traditional layout seen in prior iterations of the web browser.

Available for download through Apple's developer portal, the latest Safari 15.1 beta for macOS Big Sur and Catalina contains many of the same design tweaks pushed out with the macOS Monterey release candidate on Monday.

Like its Monterey counterpart, the Safari version for Big Sur and Catalina reverses divisive design decisions introduced at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

Initial versions of the next-generation Safari 15 included a "Compact" view that brought the tab bar in line with the URL bar, browser navigation controls and bookmarks bar. Safari's long-standing tab interface was ditched in favor of a design that delineated tabs as individual buttons separated by small spaces. A color tab bar option was also introduced to match Safari's base color with prominent hues displayed on an active website, creating the illusion that webpages extend to the edge of an open window.

Presented as Safari's default view in early betas, "Compact" was met with resistance from developers and users who found the user interface elements confusing.

Apple began to revert some of the more drastic graphical modifications back to something closer to Safari's current design in recent releases, and completed the process on Monday by reinstating macOS Big Sur's tabs view as the system default. Called "Separate," the traditional layout also removes the color tab bar feature, which has been relegated to the now optional "Compact" view.

Safari should see release later this month at or around the time macOS Monterey launches on Oct. 25.

4 Comments

MplsP 4020 comments · 8 Years

About 3 years ago

The 'compact' view was optional anyway, wasn't it?

Overall I'm not a fan of the new design. I tried giving it a few weeks to see if it would grow on me, but even after some time I still prefer the old design. At least you can get rid of the coloring.

StrangeDays 12959 comments · 8 Years

MplsP said:

The 'compact' view was optional anyway, wasn't it?

The compactness was, yes, but not the replacement of tabs with weird floating “pills” that were disconnected from the content and thus not tabs, breaking the physical tab metaphor with what were basically floating buttons.

mcdave 1927 comments · 19 Years

Just as Apple nail silicon, their design decisions are becoming a flip-flopping joke. They need that ‘courage’ or regrow some kind of a spine. U-turning on HDMI was ridiculous (who needs video without power or data?) and SD cards are dwindling in the pro-market they’re pitching MBPs to. Consumer ports for pro machines? Dumb!

mcdave said:

Just as Apple nail silicon, their design decisions are becoming a flip-flopping joke. They need that ‘courage’ or regrow some kind of a spine. U-turning on HDMI was ridiculous (who needs video without power or data?) and SD cards are dwindling in the pro-market they’re pitching MBPs to. Consumer ports for pro machines? Dumb!

You clearly need to look at the forums and talk to some people that live in the real world. The return of HDMI has been welcomed and applauded by many.

Everyone uses ‘pro’ to denigrate anyone using the machine in a way that they don’t think is necessary - it’s become tantamount to screaming ‘fake news’ at any news report you don’t agree with. There is no one ‘professional use.’ People buy computers do help them work. The HDMI makes that easier for many people. Also, If I’m not a ‘professional’ according to your judgement but I want an Apple laptop that I can conveniently connect to a conference room projector, which one do I buy?

StrangeDays said:

MplsP said:

The 'compact' view was optional anyway, wasn't it?

The compactness was, yes, but not the replacement of tabs with weird floating “pills” that were disconnected from the content and thus not tabs, breaking the physical tab metaphor with what were basically floating buttons.

Yeah, the ‘weird floating pills’ is what I can’t get used to. I’m not sure why companies have this intrinsic need to randomly change interfaces. Apple is by no means alone in this - everyone does it. Maybe it’s part of the union contract for the graphics designers.