Safari finally has vertical tabs and a new way to darken any site, all thanks to iOS 27.3
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- Safari is getting some useful updates
- Vertical tabs are coming to iOS, iPadOS and macOS, but for now they are only in beta versions for developers
- Other features like adaptive dark mode and Siri AI navigation tools are also coming, along with our first look at new Audio Intelligence capabilities.
On the global web browser stage, Safari lags behind Chrome, but when it comes to Apple’s 2.5 billion customers, it reigns supreme. However, even those devoted users might have noticed that their favorite browser was missing at least one long-sought feature. Now, with the introduction of Dev Betas for iOS 27.3, iPadOS 27.3, and macOS 27.3, they are getting their wish.
Today in beta, the platform update actually brings a number of relatively small but important updates to Safari on iPhone Duo, iPad, and Mac, but chief among them is vertical tabs.
As is often the case, Apple did not invent this idea. I started using vertical tabs, precisely, in Microsoft Edge years ago, and even Chrome added them recently. Now, with the Safari update, you can open Safari’s View menu or go into Settings and select vertical tabs.
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By default, tabs, which will be on the left side of the browser window on iPadOS and macOS (and iOS for iPhone Duo), appear as icons, a space-saving measure. You can hover over any of them to take a quick look at the hidden browser window.
There are other vertical tab features, such as the ability to pin tabs to the top of the list by dragging and dropping them, and tab groups. Tabs will work on the iPad and, yes, the new iPhone Duo in portrait and landscape mode.
The platform updates also bring a new type of Dark Mode. Instead of only showing the mode on web pages that support it, Safari will also offer to adjust unsupported pages to dark mode, but somehow, Apple promises, it won’t ruin sites. Adaptive dark mode will automatically darken light backgrounds, invert logos and graphics, change the color of vector artwork, raise raised surfaces, and even detect and adjust shadows. It will not touch already darkened places. For developers, there are new labels you can use that will prevent Adaptive Dark Mode from adjusting them.
The update also brings some Siri AI browser tools to Safari for Apple Intelligence-compatible hardware.
Siri AI already has, with your permission, knowledge of what’s on your screen, but with this update, it will see entire web pages (beyond what you see in the screen frame) and even hidden tabs.
This can be useful when you want to do wholesale organization and group tabs. Let’s say you want all tabs related to a trip to Malta sorted by activity, or you need all car purchasing tabs grouped and organized by car price.
Siri AI can, with new custom actions, make your offers in the browser and clear your history by topic, site, and time period. It can come in handy when you don’t want someone to see that you’ve been shopping for that coveted gift on a particular site for the past few days. There may be other reasons for selective history cleaning, but there is no need to go into that here.
Other notable updates coming to iOS 27.3, iPadOS 27.3, macOS 27.3, watchOS 27.3 Dev Beta 1 include:
- Siri App Actions will let Siri AI go even deeper into your system by organizing files, making travel plans, creating playlists, scheduling group messages, and finding the best photos to share.
- The promised overhaul of the Apple Health app, which uses Apple Intelligence, will give you more information about your health data.
- The couple of Audio Intelligence features that will work with your Apple Watch Series 12:
- Live rewind, to remember what was said in the conversation (you have to press the watch crown twice to read the last fragment of the conversation). It could be a great tool for resolving “he said/he said” arguments.
- Siri Recap, which, when enabled, can use Apple Intelligence to recap and summarize a talk, speech, lesson, or perhaps an entire TED Talk.
The changes will arrive first in the 27.3 beta and will eventually roll out to other platforms in a full version. For now, however, all of these updates are only in Dev Betas, which are typically the earliest and potentially buggiest versions before Apple moves on to Public Betas (which anyone can install) and final versions. There’s no word on when the full versions will arrive, and we warn you not to install developer betas on any of your everyday Apple devices.
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