Keeping Tabs
A couple tweaks has mobile Safari close in iOS 15…
Granted, I’m like 24-hours in, but I think Apple may have threaded the needle with the new version of Safari in the latest beta build of iOS 15. For the first time, it just feels right. And feels mostly polished.
Take into account that I’m someone who actually liked the first, rather bold reinvention in the first developer builds of iOS 15. And I disliked some of the initial backpedaling they did, perhaps as a result of backlash, perhaps not (come on, obviously some of it was related — that awful refresh button?!). But this is the first build that feels like something Apple would actually ship.
Yes, the URL bar is still at the bottom by default. Yes, you can change this. Both in the Settings app but also, cleverly, in the ‘aA’ area of the URL bar. Hitting that spot when the bar is on the bottom gives you an option to ‘Show Top Address Bar’ at the top of the menu. And, brilliantly, when the bar is at the top, there’s a ‘Show Bottom Tab Bar’ at the bottom of that same menu.
Well played, Apple.¹
While the URL bar remains at the bottom — as it should, because most human beings don’t have 11-inch thumbs — the real compromise Apple made in this build is the return of the toolbar below that area. This is the same toolbar found in the current bottom area of Safari, now it’s just below (and attached to) the URL area. It’s chunky but I think it’s fine.² Again, a decent compromise.
The main issue I have with it actually isn’t the chonk, it’s that it’s redundant in a few ways. The buttons for forward/back can be done with swipes of any pages to the left or right, but this has long been the case. Newly redundant is the tab button, which brings up all your open tabs, but swiping up on the URL bar at the bottom now also does this. Lastly, the ‘Refresh’ button, while thankfully shifted back to the far right of the URL bar (instead of right next to the URL, which was maddeningly close and small) is also now redundant as “pulling down” on any website also refreshes the page.
Yes, I get it. This is the old gestures vs. buttons debate. And Apple’s answer is effectively now the ‘why not both?’ meme. I think it’s fine. But I also hope it’s a temporary band aid, as it’s just a huge waste of space.
When you think about it, it is weird how much pushback Apple got against these changes since this is all a similar UI to what they’ve been doing in Apple Maps. (And they could perhaps even learn more from that UI, with the pull-up elements.) On the other hand, Safari has to be one of the most — if not the most — used apps on the iPhone. You have to take baby-steps with drastic change at that scale.
The key is that it now looks and feels good. Again, a good compromise. A nice mix of old and new that feels not only natural to use, but in some ways fun. My only real request is a way to customize that chonky menu bar a bit. So if, say, I don’t need the button to pull up my tabs because I use the swipe-up gesture for that, maybe let me sub that out for a ‘new tab’ button.³
Published on August 18, 2021 📆Written from London, England 🇬🇧Written on a 2021 11-inch M1 iPad Pro ⌨️
¹ This is especially nice as there are some sites not well situated to handle the URL bar at the bottom of the screen (whinch yes, Apple called the ‘Bottom Tab Bar’), often due to ads, but sometimes due to menus as well.
² The transition effect from the tab overview to the individual tabs with the URL on the bottom is very nice.
³ My only real complaint here is that it’s still too cumbersome to open a new tab. You either have to go to the zoomed-out tab view and hit the ‘+’ there, or long-press the tab button to bring up a menu. Or yes, you could swipe all the way to the right with the bottom URL bar enabled, but’s that’s even less obvious and easy to do.
