safari on big sur

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macOS Big Sur elevates the world's most advanced desktop operating system to a new level of power and beauty. Experience Mac to the fullest with a refined new design. Enjoy the biggest Safari update ever. Discover new features for Maps and Messages. And get even more transparency around your privacy. Design • New design for apps makes it easier to focus on your content and take action with space efficient toolbars and full height sidebars • Updated menu bar features wider spacing and a new translucent material that becomes more vibrant when you interact with it • Refreshed system sounds include the boot chime and sounds for transferring files, moving items to the trash, locking files, and more Control Center • Control Center puts your favorite menus and controls in one handy place in the menu bar so you can quickly adjust settings as you work • Additional controls appear when you click to expand Control Center menus • Support for pinning favorite menus from Control Center to the menu bar Notification Center • Updated Notification Center brings notifications and widgets together in one view • Interactive notifications display additional actions you can take with a deep press • Beautiful, new data-rich widgets for Calendar, Clock, Notes, Photos, Podcasts, Reminders, Screen Time, Stocks, and Weather • Edit view lets you to add new widgets and customize their size • Support for widgets from third-party apps Safari • World's fastest desktop browser with industry-leading performance and energy efficiency* • Customizable new start page lets you set a background image and decide what appears, including Reading List, iCloud Tabs, Privacy Report and more • Expanded extensions support and new dedicated category in the App Store for discovering new extensions • New tab design featuring favicons in tabs, and website previews that appear when you hover over a tab • Translation (beta) for English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, French, German, Russian or Brazilian Portuguese • Privacy Report gives you visibility into how Safari keeps your browsing your business, with an overview of trackers blocked by Intelligent Tracking Prevention • Safari password monitoring securely screens saved passwords for any that may have been involved in a data breach • Safari privacy prompts for extensions let you choose when a website can work with an extension Messages • Pinned conversations keep up to nine of your favorite threads at the top of the list • Mentions let you direct a message to an individual in a group conversation • Inline replies let you reply to a specific message earlier in the conversation • Message effects for balloons, confetti, lasers and more • #images helps you find and add trending GIFs to messages • Memoji makes it simple to create a personalized character and send stickers that match your mood and personality Maps • Guides offer recommendations for places to go and things to do, curated by a selection of trusted brands • Look Around to explore cities in a high-resolution, interactive 3D experience • Indoor maps for major airports and shopping centers • Cycling directions helps you find bike-friendly routes to your destination • Electric vehicle routing helps you plan trips for supported vehicles that you add on iPhone Some features may not be available for all regions, or on all Apple devices. * Performance will vary based on system configuration, network connection, and other factors.

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Get to grips with Safari in macOS Big Sur

New features and new power

Apple ’s macOS Big Sur is one of the biggest updates to its Mac operating system in years. It comes with changes galore, from a brand-new look and feel to the introduction of new features like Control Center. Many apps have been overhauled, too, including Messages, Maps, and Photos.

If you haven't got it already, check out our guide on how to download and install macOS 11 Big Sur . We also show you how to fix common macOS Big Sur problems .

One of the most notable upgrades has come to Safari , which sees a host of new features that all improve the web browsing experience on the Mac. Here, we will take you through the most important of them, helping you get to grips with everything new it has to offer.

If you're not ready for macOS Big Sur just yet, here's  how to downgrade macOS .

1. Website previews

This is especially useful if you have a lot of tabs open at once, a situation that often obscures tab titles, making it harder to find the tab you are after. To activate it, just hover over a tab and you will see the preview appear under your mouse.

One of the most useful changes to Safari in macOS Big Sur is the introduction of website previews. These show up when you hover over a tab and display a snapshot of the web page, along with the complete page title and web address.

2. Add your favorites to the start page

When you open a new tab, by default Safari will show the start page. This is now highly customizable with various widgets, accessible by clicking the toggle button in the bottom-right corner. At the top of the list are the 'Favorites' and 'Frequently Visited' sections. Favorites displays your bookmarks along a row, with icons for each page making it simple to quickly differentiate them.

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'Frequently Visited', as the name suggests, lists websites you often view. These use larger cards than the Favorites section, giving you a view of each website’s homepage alongside its web address.

3. Save interesting content for later

Safari includes a couple of useful features for reading content across devices or saving it for later; both can be added to the start page. The first, 'Reading List', lets you save pages for later reading. When viewing a page you want to save, hover over its address bar and click the + button. If you have added Reading List to your Safari start page, saved web pages will appear here. 

The second feature, iCloud tabs, syncs web pages you have opened in Safari on another device. If you do not have another Apple device, this will not show on the Safari start page.

4. Let Siri help you out

Siri is more than just a voice assistant. Its smart tech powers many of the features in all of Apple’s devices, including the suggestions you get in various apps and aspects of macOS. On the Safari start page, it can be harnessed to bring up suggested websites for you based on what it thinks you might want to browse.

For this, it relies on websites it finds in Messages, Mail, and other aspects of your Mac. Note that if you have not sent many websites to other people, it may not find anything.

5. Add a splash of color

Web browsers can look a little drab at times, especially when you open a new tab and are confronted with a mass of gray. Luckily, Safari’s start page lets you set a custom background image to brighten things up.

Click the toggle button in the bottom-right corner, then ensure the Background Image checkbox is ticked. Click one of the images in the horizontally scrolling list to set one as Safari’s background or click the + button to add one of your own. You can remove a custom image by clicking the X button next to it.

6. Get a quick privacy check-up

Apple is well known for its strong stance on privacy. As such, Safari in macOS Big Sur has introduced a new feature called Privacy Report, which you can access from the start page. To do this, click the toggle button in the bottom-right and tick the checkbox next to Privacy Report.

This widget shows you how many times in the past seven days Safari has prevented trackers from profiling you while you browse the web. It is a good way to see how the app is safeguarding your privacy – and how many websites are out to thwart it.

7. The Privacy Report in detail

On the same popup, click the 'i' button and a window will open showing much more detail. You can see how many trackers each site has tried to employ, as well as which specific trackers are being used.

Safari’s Privacy Report offers much more detail than it shows in its start page widget, though. You can see this by clicking the shield icon just to the left of the web address bar when browsing a website. This will show you how many trackers Safari has blocked from this website. Click 'Trackers on This Web Page' to see what is being used.

8. Translation made easy

When you navigate to a website written in a foreign tongue, there is no need to head to a dedicated translation website to help you out. Instead, Safari now offers on-page translation, which works at the press of a button to convert the web page to a language of your choice.

When you come across a site you want translated, click the Translate button in the web address bar (it looks like two speech bubbles). You can either translate to your system language or edit the list of preferred languages to add another option.

9. Extensions in the App Store

Extensions are a great way to add extra functionality to Safari. Previously, these were a little tricky to find, but now they have a dedicated category in the App Store to aid discovery, complete with editorial content created by Apple’s team of App Store writers.

Open the App Store and click 'Categories' in the left-hand sidebar. From here, click 'Safari Extensions'. This takes you to a page with featured extensions, themed roundups, popular free and paid extensions, and more. That makes it a lot easier to discover new ways to increase what Safari can do.

10. Keep your passwords safe

Ensuring you use strong passwords is one of the hallmarks of good web sense, but even that is not a blanket protection if your password gets leaked in a data breach. Fortunately, Safari can go some way to protecting you.

It does this by warning you if it detects one of your passwords has been found in a data dump. To enable this extra level of security, click Safari > Preferences, then click the Passwords tab. Enter your password, then tick the checkbox next to “Detect passwords compromised by known data leaks.” If you have a leaked password, change it ASAP.

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Alex Blake has been fooling around with computers since the early 1990s, and since that time he's learned a thing or two about tech. No more than two things, though. That's all his brain can hold. As well as TechRadar, Alex writes for iMore, Digital Trends and Creative Bloq, among others. He was previously commissioning editor at MacFormat magazine. That means he mostly covers the world of Apple and its latest products, but also Windows, computer peripherals, mobile apps, and much more beyond. When not writing, you can find him hiking the English countryside and gaming on his PC.

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macOS Big Sur

macOS Big Sur elevates the most advanced desktop operating system in the world to a new level of power and beauty. Experience Mac to the fullest with a refined new design. Enjoy the biggest Safari update ever. Discover new features for Maps and Messages. And get even more transparency around your privacy.

Update now See a preview of what’s coming in macOS Monterey

Bold new experience. Same Mac magic.

Unparalleled power. Legendary ease of use. Limitless creativity. macOS Big Sur brings a refined new design that gives you even more of the things you love about Mac.

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Streamlined apps

From full-height sidebars to refreshed toolbars, a clean new app design makes sure your content is always front and center.

Refreshed Dock

A sleek design update makes getting to your favorite apps even easier. And a new uniform shape for app icons adds consistency while letting the personality of Mac shine through.

Control Center for Mac

Instantly access the controls you use most — like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth — and new controls to play music and enable Dark Mode for your display. Designed just for Mac, the new Control Center lets you add controls and drag favorites to the menu bar to customize it just for you.

Notification Center

A new design combines notifications and widgets in a single view for more information at a glance. Notifications are now grouped by app, and many are interactive — letting you do things like play new podcast episodes or learn more about Calendar invitations. And redesigned widgets come in three different sizes, so you can create the best view for you.

The all-new Safari. It’s love at first site.

Whether you’re streaming, searching, or just browsing, Safari is the best way to surf the web on all your Apple devices. And its biggest update ever brings intuitive customization options, improves on industry-leading performance and battery life, and introduces powerful new features designed to protect your privacy.

Customizable start page

Set a custom background image to start every browsing session with a view that’s all your own. And decide what appears on your start page — such as your Reading List, Favorites, iCloud Tabs, Siri Suggestions, and even a new Privacy Report

Safari extensions in the App Store

A new dedicated category in the App Store makes it easy to discover extensions from your favorite developers. New support for the WebExtensions API and migration tools allows developers to bring extensions from other browsers to Safari. And unlike other browsers, Safari asks you which websites each extension can access — keeping your browsing habits even more private.

Improved tab design

Tab lovers rejoice: An elegant new look means more tabs are visible at once. You can hover over any tab to bring up an instant page preview. And when you have several tabs open, Safari makes it easy to find the one you’re looking for with a new space-efficient design.

Beta Translation

Translate entire web pages between seven languages with a single click. 1

Password monitoring

Safari lets you know of any saved passwords that have been compromised in a data breach — and helps you upgrade them.

Safari automatically keeps an eye out for any saved passwords that may have been involved in a data breach. Using advanced cryptographic techniques, Safari periodically checks a derivation of your passwords against an updated list of compromised credentials. If a breach is discovered, Safari helps you upgrade your existing passwords. All this is done without revealing your password information to anyone — including Apple.

Privacy Report

Safari uses Intelligent Tracking Prevention to identify trackers and helps prevent them from profiling or following you across the web. Click the Privacy Report button in your Safari toolbar for an instant snapshot of the cross-site trackers Safari is actively preventing from profiling you on that web page. And a new weekly Privacy Report on your start page shows how Safari protects your browsing across all the websites you visit.

The Privacy Report makes it easy to understand how the websites you visit treat your privacy. See the total number of trackers that have tried to profile you, the percentage of websites containing trackers, and the most common tracker. There’s even a list of top trackers, and another list of the websites that use them.

Increased performance

We made the fastest desktop browser on the planet even faster.

Improved power efficiency

Safari lets you do more online on a single charge than any other browser.

Up to 1.5 hours more streaming videos compared with Chrome and Firefox 3

Up to 1 hour more browsing compared with Chrome and Firefox 3

Messages on Mac. The ultimate conversation starter.

Keep track of groups. Express yourself instantly. Drill down into the details. The updated Messages app for Mac gives you all the tools you need to stay in control of the conversation.

Pin conversations

Pin any conversation to keep it at the top of your conversation list. Tapbacks, typing indicators, and recent messages animate above pins. And for quick access to your important conversations, your pins sync across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Inline replies

Reply directly to specific messages in any conversation. Messages automatically starts a new thread under the original reply, so if someone asks a question in a group conversation, it’s easy to keep track of all the replies.

Group photos

Every group is different. Make yours stand out at a glance by setting an image with a photo, Memoji, or emoji.

Type a name to direct a message to someone. When you are mentioned, your name is highlighted. You can even customize an active group so you only receive notifications when you are mentioned.

Discover trending images and GIFs — and instantly add them to any message.

Go ahead — express yourselves. Now you can create and edit Memoji right on your Mac, and instantly share them in messages with Memoji stickers.

Message effects

Because sometimes, words just aren’t enough.

Message effects come to Mac. Choose from effects that take up the entire screen — like balloons, confetti, or lasers — or effects that change how individual message bubbles animate. You can even send a message with invisible ink that stays blurred until you swipe over it with your cursor.

Find it, whatever it is, faster. Search now organizes your results into links and photos and highlights matching terms.

Redesigned Maps. Better ways to find your way.

Updated to make the most of your big display, Maps on Mac makes trip planning fast and easy. Powerful new features let you easily research destinations in advance. And new ways to navigate take the guesswork out of getting there.

Discover new places to eat, shop, and explore with curated Guides from brands you love. Create Guides for your own favorite places and share them with friends and family. 4

Privacy information on the App Store. More transparency in every download.

New privacy information on the App Store lets you see a summary of the privacy practices of each app before you decide to download it — just like nutrition labels help you understand what’s in food before you buy it. Developers self-report how they use your data, including what data they collect and whether that data is used to track you across other apps and websites.

And even more.

Editing in photos.

Create standout photos with expanded editing capabilities, including an improved Retouch tool powered by machine learning. 5

AirPods automatic device switching

AirPods automatically switch between your active devices paired to the same iCloud account — making it even easier to use them with your Apple devices. 6

HomeKit Secure Video notifications

Cameras that support HomeKit Secure Video can now take advantage of Face Recognition and Activity Zones, allowing you to tailor notifications to specific people or specific areas in your camera’s view. 7

Listen Now is the new home for Apple Music, 8 featuring new releases, artist interviews, and playlists personalized for you — all in one place.

Faster updates

Once macOS Big Sur is installed, software updates begin in the background and finish faster than before — so it’s easier than ever to keep your Mac up to date and secure.

See a full list of what’s new in macOS Big Sur.

See if your mac can run macos big sur., develop for macos big sur..

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5 New Features to Explore in MacOS Big Sur

It's that time of year again—a big new update has arrived to macOS, Apple's desktop operating system for its Macs. For several years, Apple has been naming its annual software releases after California locales, and this year we're treated to Big Sur. If you want to be technical, it's macOS 11.

You get a fresh look, widgets, and a whole lot more. Before we dive into some of the top new features, here's how to install it.

Before downloading anything, your first step is to back up your Mac. You never know what can happen! You can back it up via Time Machine if you have an external storage drive, or you can use iCloud if you have enough space. This support page walks you through both methods.

If you have a Mac from 2013 or newer, there's a good chance your device is compatible with macOS 11 Big Sur. Here's the exact list straight from the horse's mouth:

• MacBook (2015 or later)
• MacBook Air (2013 or later)
• MacBook Pro (Late 2013 or later)
• Mac mini (2014 or later)
• iMac (2014 or later)
• iMac Pro (2017 or later)
• Mac Pro (2013 or later)

If you're unsure about your model, click the Apple icon on the top-left corner of your Mac's screen, then select About this Mac . Apple has a more in-depth guide here on finding your specific Mac to see whether it's supported.

You'll need to be running OS X 10.9 or later, and you need 4 GB of memory plus 35.5 gigabytes of unused storage. The Big Sur update is about 12 gigs. You should install it when you aren't in a rush to use your Mac, as the whole process can take about an hour.

To update, click the Apple icon on the top left, then choose System Preferences > Software Update > Upgrade Now . From there, just let the Mac do its thing. Now, on to the goodies.

You'll first notice that everything looks … different. Big Sur isn't a substantial visual overhaul, but there are small design tweaks that make the interface look a little more iPad-esque . Corners, whether you're looking at apps or the dock, are rounded. App icons are a squircle shape instead of round. Colors are bolder, grays are darker, and various icons and menus have been compressed to take up less room (looking at you, Finder). Overall, the entire operating system looks closer to a mobile OS and a great deal more modern .

A part of this redesign includes the Control Center. Yep, that's right: The Control Center from the iPhone and iPad is now on the Mac. It's the icon with two toggles in the Menu bar on the top right. Tap it and you can get quick access to settings for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, brightness, Do Not Disturb, sound, and current media playback.

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You can't move things around here, but you can add some extras to make the Control Center even more useful. Click the Apple icon, then System Preferences > Dock & Menu Bar and scroll down to Other Modules to add Accessibility Shortcuts, Battery, and Fast User Switching. It's here where you can also choose what items you want to show in the Menu bar itself, including the battery percentage.

Widgets aren't new to macOS, but the ones that debuted on iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 are now available through the Notification Center. Just tap the top-right corner (or the clock) and you'll find the new widget pane. Tap Edit Widgets to move them around, remove them, or add new ones in various sizes. Unlike on the iPhone, you can't put widgets wherever you want; they only stay in this hidden area.

Apple says Big Sur brings the "biggest update to Safari since its original launch in 2003." It's speedier than ever (50 percent faster than Chrome, according to Apple), and you can finally watch 4K HDR content on YouTube and Netflix. If you're like me and have dozens of tabs open at any given time, you'll like that you can now hover over a tab to see a preview of what's there. Plus, Safari now shows favicons in the tabs, so it's much easier to find the tab you're hunting for.

If you encounter a web page in another language, now you can use Siri's built-in translator to turn it into one of seven languages. Just go up to the menus at the top of the screen and click View > Translate > Translate to English .

The Safari Start Page got a makeover too. Instead of just showing your favorite or frequently visited websites, you'll also see a Privacy Report for how many trackers Safari has blocked. Also present are Siri Suggestions and access to your Reading List, and you can change the background to something more colorful. (You can remove some of these widgets by tapping the edit icon on the bottom right of Safari's start page.)

Speaking of the Privacy Report, if you click the shield icon to the left of the URL, you'll see how many tracking scripts on that web page Safari prevented from tracking you. Safari can also alert you if any saved passwords are compromised in a data breach, and you can restrict extensions so they don't needlessly collect data. (They're also now searchable in the Mac App Store.)

In an effort to get you to use its maps instead of the competition's, Apple has revamped the Maps app on the Mac, porting many new features that first showed up in iOS 14's version of Maps. There's Look Around, Apple's answer to Google's Street View; Guides, in case you're looking for the best coffee spots nearby; and cycling and navigation, though that's limited to a handful of cities such as New York and Los Angeles.

You can make your own guide if you're planning a trip (maybe in 2021), send directions from Mac to iPhone, and any saved Favorite locations are now far easier to access. It's a much-needed update.

Apple excels at providing users with a robust product ecosystem. If you have an iPhone, an Apple Watch is a must-have accessory for keeping up with notifications and tracking your fitness. If you have an iPhone, it's easier to share files between it and a Mac with the AirDrop feature, plus you can continue conversations on multiple devices through the Messages app, which is on both desktop and mobile platforms. But until now, the Mac version of the Messages app has offered the bare minimum functionality, only letting you send and receive messages. That's no longer the case.

Big Sur greatly upgrades Messages to bring in several new features from iOS 14. You can pin conversations to the top of your threads—that includes group messages—and you can add message effects like balloons or confetti for some pizzazz. The update lets you create Memoji on the Mac now too, which means you can send them from the Mac app, or you can click the icon on the left of the text field and click #images to send GIFs.

Group messaging is more powerful, with the ability to respond to folks in a thread (potentially reducing the number of pings ). And if you're feeling inundated with notifications, you can set it so you receive alerts only when someone says your name.

There are several smaller updates in Big Sur. Head to Apple's macOS 11 web page to see the full list, but here are a few standouts.

iPhone and iPad Apps on Macs with the M1 Chip: This applies only if you have one of the new MacBooks with Apple's own M1 chip . You're able to download some iPhone and iPad apps! Just search for an app in the Mac App Store, and you'll see a new tab to find iPhone and iPad apps. Not every app is available—developers have to opt in to desktop support, and it could take months or longer for some to bring their apps over.

Better Spotlight Search: Spotlight, the Mac's search tool, is now faster, and you can preview many of the results right from the Spotlight interface, including web pages, weather, and files.

Nutrition Label in the App Store: Before downloading an app on the App Store, you'll find a Nutrition Label of sorts at the bottom. It shows a preview of data the developer will collect via the app and other data that may be used to track you. Developers have to provide this information starting December 8.

Automatic AirPods Switching: If you have AirPods and they're connected to multiple Apple devices, the earbuds can now automatically switch to your Mac when it's turned on. You'll see a banner notification asking for permission.

Take your time to get to know many of these helpful new features. If you have an iPhone or iPad, check out our guide on all the new features in iOS and iPadOS 14 . And if you own an Apple Watch, we've got a roundup of all the new goodies in watchOS 7 .

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macOS Big Sur review: Entering the future of the Mac

Our macos big sur review explains if you should download now.

Tom's Guide Verdict

macOS Big Sur gives Safari major improvements, but its design changes may require some adjustments on your end.

Safari gets more complete

Control Center collects options

Messages gets pinned texts, GIF search

Interface changes may not please all

Doesn't support some older Macs

Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate.

macOS Big Sur is finally here. I've spent the summer playing around with the Developer Beta, where I saw some the perks of Apple's biggest refresh to its laptops and desktops in ages, and I'm ready to tell you if you should or shouldn't update now. 

The biggest Big Sur changes revolve around the interface, which has become more iOS-like, and pushed for bolder color, thanks to increased use of transparency and translucency. Safari's gotten a lot of tricks as well, including a tab preview option that we're surprised they beat Chrome to.

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That being said, macOS Big Sur isn't coming out in a vacuum. A new generation of Macs just debuted — all running the Apple M1 chip, including the new MacBook Air (2020) — and they will run Big Sur and also offer the ability to emulate iOS and iPadOS apps. We haven't gotten our hands on those yet, so I can't speak to how well that works.

But for everyone else considering the upgrade from macOS Catalina (or earlier), here's everything you need to know to see if you should download the macOS Big Sur today:

macOS Big Sur review: Release date and supported devices

macOS Big Sur's release date has been "this fall," and since that season doesn't end until mid-December, they've hit that window. At the "One more thing" event, Apple announced that macOS Big Sur is arriving on Thursday, Nov. 12.

Here's the complete list of Macs that support Big Sur:

• MacBook: 2015 and later
• MacBook Air: 2013 and later
• MacBook Pro: Late 2013 and later
• Mac mini: 2014 and later
• iMac: 2014 and later
• iMac Pro: 2017 and later (all models)
• Mac Pro: 2013 and later

Personally, this is the biggest issue I have with macOS Big Sur, as my personal MacBook Pro, the first Retina Display model, came out in 2012. While it still runs (albeit a bit slower than it once did), I can see the writing on the walls, and anticipate buying a new Mac soon.

macOS Big Sur review: Design

I almost worry about the day my parents update to macOS Big Sur, because they're going to call or text and say "it's so different!" The biggest change from my point of view is the increased use of transparent and translucent layers, which you'll see everywhere from the Menu Bar at the top of the screen to every app's Toolbar, where all of its buttons are found. 

Your preference for Apple's changes here — where they're seemingly having the menus recede into the background to make content more prominent — will likely depend on how your eyes like (or dislike) text overlaid on transparent layers. 

At first, I saw the combination of white text on an opaque bright blue background as ... not what I would have chosen personally. Fortunately, you can switch your desktop background, and Apple offers plenty of options, which can and will change the color of the menu bar text for optimal legibility. 

Gripes aside, though, I love some of the new stock desktop backgrounds, so play around and find what works best for you.

I probably wouldn't have gone this route had I been given the choice, as a more consistent interface allows you to pick the background you want and stay with it. That being said, I understand Apple's decision, and in the months I've used Big Sur, I've gotten used to all the different combinations. 

These moments happen throughout macOS Big Sur, including in Safari, where the backgrounds of websites can change the colors of the Toolbar and bookmark bar as you scroll down. To adjust, open System Preferences, select Accessibility, select Display in the left menu and click "Reduce transparency." 

Also, Apple's dialed back the silver hues of many of their applications, including Finder, Music and Safari, to a more neutral white tone. This may just be personal preference — I'm not sure — but while I preferred the silver hue of the past, this is something I quickly got over as well.

The other big aesthetic change comes to macOS' app icons. Apple's introduced a new standard icon shape, using the squares with rounded edges seen in iOS. Along with that, we've got icons that look a lot more bubbly and curved. The design language used here is known as Neumorphism, and it puts an emphasis on shadows and dimensionality. 

If you're the type to care about app icons (and I count myself as one of those nit-picky types), you'll probably have strong opinions. I prefer how Music and News look, where the secondary element looks debossed, rather than how the chat bubble for Messages and the envelope for Mail are seemingly popping up out of the background.

The one actually annoying part of this is that I have not gotten used to the new red hue of the Music app icon, making it hard to visually find it (I know I'll get used to it). 

One design discrepancy I've noticed, though, is how macOS handles security alerts and notifications. The former appear in middle-of-screen boxes, while the latter are smaller in the top-right corner, often times only showing you there's a button to click when your cursor hovers over it buttons. For new email notifications, that's not a big deal, but those initial notifications for each app, where they ask for permission to send notifications, I'd rather those appear in the center, where they'd be harder to ignore. Anything that appears in the top right corner is easier to dismiss. 

It's hard to be especially critical about design, since it's so much more subjective than almost any other aspect of technology, so I couch all of the above in "your mileage may vary."

macOS Big Sur: Safari

Every time Apple announces a big new macOS update, I decide to use it as a chance to spend more time with Safari, which often gets more and more perks. And with macOS Big Sur, it feels like I'm going to be spending more time with Safari than ever. Sure, I won't be able to use it for some work stuff (some of our extensions are Chrome-only), but Safari's finally getting some features it's long needed.

First off, you can choose a splash image for your blank tab screen. I chose the basic "diagonal rays of color" image that's pre-loaded into Big Sur, but you can pick whatever image you want. Chrome's had this forever, and it's good to see Safari catch up.

Similarly, I'm saying "finally" at the sight of favicons — the little icons for each website, like Twitter's bird and Dropbox's opened box — for tabs in Safari. These make it much easier to keep track of which tab is which, and have been in every other web browser since I can remember. Apple had made favicons available in Safari previously, but they were in the app's settings, where many people might not poke around and find.

Apple didn't stop at that low-hanging fruit, though, as it's also rolled out tab previews. If the favicon isn't enough for you to realize what's on that page (it's been enough for me so far), you can hover over a tab to see what that page looks like, as a pop-over image will show a glimpse of said site.

Apple rates Safari on macOS Big Sur as "50% faster on average at loading frequently visited websites than Chrome," but I haven't noticed any significantly faster performance myself, though I haven't done any testing yet. Apple also claims that Safari is going to last an hour longer on battery than Chrome and Firefox for web browsing, and up to 3 hours longer for streaming video online.

macOS Big Sur: Control Center and widgets on the Mac

Apple's also imported iOS' Control Center, which collects a lot of system preferences (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirDrop, display brightness, volume, Do Not Disturb, keyboard brightness and screen mirroring) under a Menu Bar button that looks like a pair of on/off toggles. 

The best part of this feature is that it's not moving any features away from where they were, but consolidating them under one easy to find area, so users who are more familiar with their iPhone (both place this set of options in the top right corner) may find them faster. At the same time, these buttons all look a little bigger than they did in previous macOS versions. The larger icons aren't just easier to see, they're also a little more finger friendly, suggesting that Macs will some day offer a touch screen.

That being said, I didn't find myself using Control Center at all, because my ingrained muscle memory for macOS defaults to using the traditional means. Yes, that includes the Touch Bar, which I don't like, but use anyways, as my fingers are still reaching for the row of keys at the top of the keyboard. 

Oh, and Apple's so in love with widgets in iOS 14 that Big Sur is also getting widgets. I haven't gotten to use any third party widgets (the best on iOS if you ask me), but I do like how the Notes widget makes it easier to access my household's shared grocery list. I just wish I could see more of it, as the single note version of the Notes app widget is only available in the small size, and not medium (2x) or large (4x). 

macOS Big Sur: Security and privacy

macOS Catalina got a lot of flack for its heavy-handed security measures, forcing users to manually approve access for a lot of features -- over and over again. Personally, I'm all for it, because people should be more aware of what applications can do what with their data.

Similarly, people should be more capable of seeing how websites are tracking them, something that Safari has pushed harder on. From the Safari start page you're presented with a counter of how many trackers Safari has stopped from "profiling you." Mozilla's Firefox browser has a similar feature.

And when you load any website in Safari, you can click the Shield icon to see how many trackers are active and prevented on that page.

macOS Big Sur: Beta notes

Beta versions of software are (nearly all of the time) less stable than the final versions released to the public — and that's been true for some of my time with macOS Big Sur. Most of the time, though it was stable, but when I did hit insurmountable flaws, I remembered why I warn people to never ever use beta software on their production machine. For example, software developers tend to only put betas on their test machines, and not their actual work machines. 

During earlier builds of the Big Sur developer betas, I ran into a really annoying problem where Mac App Store apps such as Due and Fantastical had to be deleted and reinstalled, but you couldn't delete them without restarting. 

Later, and this is the one that really sent me chasing answers, I couldn't open any Google Docs in Chrome. I kept getting an "Aw, snap" error message, which was both annoying and reminiscent of Steve Buscemi's "hello fellow kids" moment on 30 Rock (though that's more an issue with Google than Apple). 

macOS Big Sur: Features also found on iOS 14

In Messages, macOS gets the pinned messages (up to 9) that we see in the iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, but also threaded messages for replies in group chats. Those are nice, but I'm more happy to see the GIF search engine finally built into the OS. Now, when you tap on the Messages Apps icon next to the text entry field, you get the #images search option, to pull GIFs off the internet. 

I don't know if or when folks will give Apple Maps another shot, but if they pull up Maps on macOS Big Sur, they'll get a pleasant surprise at how full featured it is. In the left rail, you see our favorites (home, work, the movie theater you used to go to before COVID-19) and recent locations, such as the one NYC park that's actually quiet and  my nearby UPS store.

What I really like is how the Music app mini player can be turned into a beautiful full-screen experience presenting lyrics and artwork on a larger scale. Hit Shift + Command + M to open the Mini Viewer, and click the Green full screen button to see it for yourself. 

Big Sur also gets the automatic AirPods device switching that the iOS and iPadOS got earlier this fall. It works a little differently, though, as you'll only switch the audio after confirming a small pop-up in the top right corner of the screen. Wish it were more truly automatic, but I guess Apple's trying to avoid false-positives when people own multiple devices.

macOS Big Sur: Outlook

While I like a fair share of macOS Big Sur's features, I have a hard time telling people to install it ASAP. The design changes and Safari improvements are nice, but this is arguably not where all the big news in the land of Macs is happening. 

Maybe one of the above features is calling your name, and that's well and good. My one piece of advice is to look up any third-party applications that you rely on for work, and make sure they have been updated for Big Sur. Major updates always carry a risk for compatibility issues — just like how the beta of Big Sur wasn't 

As noted above, the biggest story in macOS is the impending arrival of Apple M1 chip Macs that run on ARM-based chips. Not only will those bring iOS apps to the Mac, but the performance and endurance gains found in Apple Silicon chips have a chance to reshape the Mac as we know it.  

Maybe you can wait until your first Apple Silicon Mac to get Big Sur, as that may be a safer bet. For now, though, Big Sur looks like solid terrain for the future of the Mac.

Henry is a managing editor at Tom’s Guide covering streaming media, laptops and all things Apple, reviewing devices and services for the past seven years. Prior to joining Tom's Guide, he reviewed software and hardware for TechRadar Pro, and interviewed artists for Patek Philippe International Magazine. He's also covered the wild world of professional wrestling for Cageside Seats, interviewing athletes and other industry veterans.

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macOS Big Sur 11: What’s new in Safari 14

With Safari in macOS Big Sur, Apple puts a priority on speed and privacy. In all, the changes make for a browsing experience that feels more personalized than ever. Here’s an overview of the new features in Safari.

Speed and efficiency

Apple claims that the new Safari is up to 50 percent faster than Google Chrome. The company also says that Safari on a MacBook is less power hungry than other browsers, because the software is optimized for the Mac.

Apple claims that compared to the Chrome and Firefox browsers, Safari provides up to an hour more browsing time, and up to three hours of video streaming time, on a single battery charge.

Safari’s start page has more customization options. We have the details on how to customize the start page .

Favicons and page preview

Favicons will appear in page tabs, and if you hold your cursor over a tab, you can see a preview of the webpage.

Hover your cursor over the Favicon to get a preview of the webpage.

On-the-fly translation

Safari has tools so you can translate websites in English, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Russian, or Brazilian Portuguese.

To translate a page, click View , and then select Translation . A menu will appear with the available translations on your Mac. Select the translation you want, and Safari will process the webpage you are looking at and then display the translated page.

In this example, the translation tool is used to convert a webpage written in English (above) to Spanish (below).

To add a language you don’t see on the list, go the Language & Region system preference, and you can add the language you want in the “Preferred languages” section.

Safari’s new Privacy Report.

A new Privacy toolbar button can show web trackers and also display a full privacy report that shows a list of blockers trackers from the past 30 days. To see the Privacy Report, click on the Privacy toolbar button (the shield button next to the address box.) In the pop-up that appears, click on the encircled “i” icon in the upper right.

You can also add a Privacy Report to your start page.

If you use the web often, you probably use a lot of passwords to log into sites and services. Safari’s password monitoring checks if passwords have been involved in a data breach and generate new passwords if necessary.

Safari extensions

Apple has put more focus on extensions made by third parties. Developers can get tools to convert Google Chrome extensions into ones for Safari. Users will be able to peruse extensions in the App Store, with descriptions to tell you about each one, and a chart to let you know which ones are popular. And you can designate when an extension works on a website.

Author: Roman Loyola , Senior Editor

Roman has covered technology since the early 1990s. His career started at MacUser, and he's worked for MacAddict, Mac|Life, and TechTV.

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How to Get New Safari Browser on macOS Big Sur or Older Versions

Install New Safari Browser on Older macOS Versions in 2021

Install safari 15 beta on your mac running macos big sur or catalina.

If you are really interested in testing the new browser, we have explained the easiest method to get the new Safari browser experience on your Mac device.

Download Safari Technology Preview to Use New Safari Browser on macOS Big Sur

4. On the installer window, click on Continue to start installing the Safari Technology Preview on your macOS Big Sur device.

9. Once the Safari Technology Preview has been installed, you will get a confirmation. And that’s it. You can now start using the redesigned Safari browser with tab groups, new More menu, and sharing features, among other features.

Use New Safari Browser on Older macOS Versions on Mac

1. To get started, open the Safari Technology Preview app . You can find it in the Applications folders. For quick access, drag the app from the Applications folder and drop it in the Dock.

Shared with You

“Shared with You” automatically shows up all the links shared in the Apple Messages app. Additionally, it also stores the shared links that you pin. Hence, if you ever want to check the web links shared via the stock message app on Apple devices, you no longer have to dig into conversation threads.

Now, uncheck the “ Shared with You ” option, and that’s it.

Use the Redesigned Safari Browser on Older macOS Versions

Rajesh Mishra

An old school bibliophile who turned a tech nerd out of obsession. When he is not digging into hacks and tracking down stories that are breaking the internet, you may find him reciting poems.

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Safari 14 is now available for macOS Catalina and Mojave

Ahead of big sur’s launch later this year.

By Jon Porter , a reporter with five years of experience covering consumer tech releases, EU tech policy, online platforms, and mechanical keyboards.

Share this story

Apple has released the latest version of its Safari browser for macOS Catalina and High Sierra, ahead of the release of Big Sur later this year. Safari 14 improves the browser’s tabs, adds a new privacy report feature, and offers new customization options for your start page. You can download it by heading to System Preferences app and clicking “Software Update.” 

One of the key improvements that’s coming with the latest version of Safari is improved tab management . The tabs themselves have been redesigned to be more space-efficient, display website favicons by default, and show a preview of each tab while hovering your mouse over them. There’s a new start page which you can customize with your own backgrounds and links, and a Privacy Report that highlights any cross-site trackers that the browser is blocking. Oh, and this version of the browser also removes support for Adobe Flash.

Tab management, baby

Some new Safari features will require macOS Big Sur to run, and aren’t available if you’re updating Safari on an older version of the operating system, 9to5Mac reports . These include support for 4K HDR video, and the browser’s built-in translation feature.

Yesterday saw the release of a swathe of Apple operating system updates , including iOS 14 for iPhones, iPadOS 14 for iPads, tvOS 14 for the Apple TV, and watchOS 7 for Apple Watches. You’ve still got a little longer to wait to update your Mac, but at least you can grab the new browser now.

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Safari 17 with enhanced Private Browsing out now for macOS Ventura, macOS Monterey

Safari with Apple's Private Browsing

Timed to join the update to macOS Sonoma , the introduction of Safari 17 updates Apple's macOS web browser adds some much-needed features to the surfing tool.

The release notes mention support for Profiles , allowing browsing to be separated for topics and tasks like "Work" and "Personal." Profiles have their own history, cookies, extensions, Tab Groups, and favorites lists.

A new enhanced Private Browsing locks the windows when they're not used, stops known trackers from loading, and can remove identifying tracking elements from URLs.

Search has also been streamlined to make it faster, offer more relevant results, and to make it easier to read.

Multiple tab selections allow users to select multiple tabs at once, so they can be moved around the tab bar or created into a Tab Group.

The update is available through System Settings in macOS Ventura or System Preferences in macOS Monterey , under General then Software Update. The download weighs in at 165.7MB.

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Update to the latest version of Safari

If a Safari update is available for your device, you can get it by updating or upgrading macOS, iOS, iPadOS, or visionOS.

Get Safari updates for Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Apple Vision Pro

The most up-to-date version of Safari is included with the latest version of the operating system for your Apple device.

To update Safari on Mac, update macOS .

To update Safari on iPhone or iPad, update iOS or iPadOS .

To update Safari on Apple Vision Pro, update visionOS .

Get Safari updates for Windows

Apple no longer offers Safari updates for Windows or other PC operating systems. Safari 5.1.7 for Windows, released in 2010 and now outdated, was the last version made for Windows.

If a website says your browser is out of date

If a website says that Safari is out of date even though you're already using the latest version of macOS, iOS, iPadOS, or visionOS, there could be an issue with the website. If you’re sure that you want to use the website, contact the website owner or developer for guidance about how to best use their website.

Related topics

Explore Apple Support Community

Find what’s been asked and answered by Apple customers.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Can you clear the cache in Big Sur Safari?

How, if possible or supported, do you clear the cache in Safari Big Sur. Vendors recommend clearing the cache to remove problems but Safari (at least in Big Sur) doesn't seem to support a traditional cache (Content Cache is not the same).

iMac 27″, macOS 11.1

Posted on Jan 3, 2021 7:40 PM

Posted on Jan 6, 2021 8:54 AM

Hey there, Michael Parker11.

We understand you're wondering how to clear the cache in Safari with macOS Big Sur installed.

Clearing the cache and browsing history can sometimes help when you encounter issues with Safari: Clear your browsing history in Safari on Mac If you let us know what's going on with Safari, we could try to provide more targeted troubleshooting steps. This article might be helpful to you as well: If Safari is slow, stops responding, quits unexpectedly, or has other issues

As for clearing the cache, you that can be done by going to Develop menu in the menu bar > Empty Caches. If you don't see the Develop menu in the menu bar, you can change that by going to Preferences > Advanced > then check Show Develop menu in menu bar.

We hope that helps. Take care.

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Apple Releases Safari Technology Preview 193 With Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements

Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview , the experimental browser Apple first introduced in March 2016. Apple designed the ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.

The current ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ release is compatible with machines running macOS Ventura and macOS Sonoma , the latest version of macOS that Apple released in September 2023.

The ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ update is available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences or System Settings to anyone who has downloaded the browser . Full release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website .

Apple's aim with ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.

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Top Rated Comments

I'm always curious about these Safari Tech Preview posts. Are they just a quick way to add another headline? I suspect so, as I don't see many people trusting these builds as their daily driver. I've tried that in the past, but it never stuck.

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Optimizing WebKit & Safari for Speedometer 3.0

Apr 10, 2024

by Alan Baradlay, Antti Koivisto, Matt Woodrow, Patrick Angle, Ryosuke Niwa, Vitor Ribeiro Roriz, Wenson Hsieh, and Yusuke Suzuki

The introduction of Speedometer 3.0 is a major step forward in making the web faster for all, and allowing Web developers to make websites and web apps that were not previously possible. In this article, we explore ways the WebKit team made performance optimizations in WebKit and Safari based on the Speedometer 3.0 benchmark.

In order to make these improvements, we made an extensive use of our performance testing infrastructure. It’s integrated with our continuous integration , and provides the capability to schedule A/B tests. This allows engineers to quickly test out performance optimizations and catch new performance regressions.

Improving Tools

Proper tooling support is the key to identifying and addressing performance bottlenecks. We defined new internal JSON format for JavaScriptCore sampling profiler output to dump and process them offline. It includes a script which processes and generates analysis of hot functions and hot byte codes for JavaScriptCore. We also added FlameGraph generation tool for the dumped sampling profiler output which visualizes performance bottlenecks. In addition, we added support for JITDump generation on Darwin platforms to dump JIT related information during execution. And we improved generated JITDump information for easy use as well. These tooling improvements allowed us to quickly identify bottlenecks across Speedometer 3.0.

Improving JavaScriptCore

Revising megamorphic inline cache (ic).

Megamorphic IC offers faster property access when one property access site observes many different object types and/or property names. We observed that some frameworks such as React contain a megamorphic property access. This led us to continuously improve JavaScriptCore’s megamorphic property access optimizations: expanding put megamorphic IC, adding megamorphic IC for the in operation, and adding generic improvements for megamorphic IC.

Revising Call IC

Call IC offers faster function calls by caching call targets inline. We redesigned Call IC and we integrated two different architectures into different tiers of Just-In-Time (JIT) compilers. Lower level tiers use Call IC without any JIT code generation and the highest level tier uses JIT code generatiton with the fastest Call IC. There is a tradeoff between code generation time and code efficiency, and JavaScriptCore performs a balancing act between them to achieve the best performance across different tiers.

Optimizing JSON

Speedometer 3.0 also presented new optimization opportunities to our JSON implementations as they contain more non-ASCII characters than before. We made our fast JSON stringifier work for unicode characters . We also analyzed profile data carefully and made JSON.parse faster than ever .

Adjusting Inlining Heuristics

There are many tradeoffs when inlining functions in JavaScript. For example, inline functions can more aggressively increase the total bytecode size and may cause memory bandwidth to become a new bottleneck. The amount of instruction cache available in CPU can also influence how effective a given inlining strategy is. And the calculus of these tradeoffs change over time as we make more improvements to JavaScriptCore such as adding new bytecode instruction and changes to DFG’s numerous optimization phases. We took the release of the new Speedometer 3.0 benchmark as an opportunity to adjust inlining heuristics based on data collected in modern Apple silicon Macs with the latest JavaScriptCore.

Make JIT Code Destruction Lazy

Due to complicated conditions, JavaScriptCore eagerly destroyed CodeBlock and JIT code when GC detects they are dead. Since these destructions are costly, they should be delayed and processed while the browser is idle. We made changes so that they are now destroyed lazily, during idle time in most cases.

Opportunistic Sweeping and Garbage Collection

In addition, we noticed that a significant amount of time goes into performing garbage collection and incremental sweeping across all subtests in both Speedometer 2.1 and 3.0. In particular, if a subtest allocated a large number of JavaScript objects on the heap, we would often spend a significant amount of time in subsequent subtests collecting these objects. This had several effects:

• Increasing synchronous time intervals on many subtests due to on-demand sweeping and garbage collection when hitting heap size limits.
• Increasing asynchronous time intervals on many subtests due to asynchronous garbage collection or timer-based incremental sweeping triggering immediately after the synchronous timing interval.
• Increasing overall variance depending on whether timer-based incremental sweeping and garbage collection would fall in the synchronous or asynchronous timing windows of any given subtest.

At a high level, we realized that some of this work could be performed opportunistically in between rendering updates — that is, during idle time — instead of triggering in the middle of subtests. To achieve this, we introduced a new mechanism in WebCore to provide hints to JavaScriptCore to opportunistically perform scheduled work after the previous rendering update has completed until a given deadline (determined by the estimated remaining time until the next rendering update). The opportunistic task scheduler also accounts for imminently scheduled zero delay timers or pending requestAnimationFrame callbacks : if it observes either, it’s less likely to schedule opportunistic work in order to avoid interference with imminent script execution. We currently perform a couple types of opportunistically scheduled tasks:

• Incremental Sweeping : Prior to the opportunistic task scheduler, incremental sweeping in JavaScriptCore was automatically triggered by a periodically scheduled 100 ms timer. This had the effect of occasionally triggering incremental sweeping during asynchronous timing intervals, but also wasn’t aggressive enough to prevent on-demand sweeping in the middle of script execution. Now that JavaScriptCore is knowledgable about when to opportunistically schedule tasks, it can instead perform the majority of incremental sweeping in between rendering updates while there aren’t imminently scheduled timers. The process of sweeping is also granular to each marked block, which allows us to halt opportunistic sweeping early if we’re about to exceed the deadline for the next estimated rendering update.
• Garbage Collection : By tracking the amount of time spent performing garbage collection in previous cycles, we’re able to roughly estimate the amount of time needed to perform the next garbage collection based on the number of bytes visited or allocated since the last cycle. If the remaining duration for performing opportunistically scheduled tasks is longer than this estimated garbage collection duration, we immediately perform either an Eden collection or full garbage collection . Furthermore, we integrated activity-based garbage collections into this new scheme to schedule them at appropriate timing.

Overall, this strategy yields a 6.5% total improvement in Speedometer 3.0 *, decreasing the time spent in every subtest by a significant margin, and a 6.9% total improvement in Speedometer 2.1 *, significantly decreasing the time spent in nearly all subtests.

* macOS 14.4, MacBook Air (M2, 2022)

Various Miscellaneous Optimizations for Real World Use Cases

We extensively reviewed all Speedometer 3.0 subtests and did many optimizations for realistic use cases. The examples include but are not limited to: faster Object.assign with empty objects , improving object spread performance , and so on.

Improving DOM code

Improving DOM code is Speedometer’s namesake, and that’s exactly what we did. For example, we now store the NodeType in the Node object itself instead of relying on a virtual function call. We also made DOMParser use a fast parser, improved its support of li elements , and made DOMParser not construct a redundant DocumentFragment . Together, these changes improved TodoMVC-JavaScript-ES5 by ~20%. We also eliminated O(n^2) behavior in the fast parser for about ~0.5% overall progression in Speedometer 3.0. We also made input elements construct their user-agent shadow tree lazily during construction and cloning , the latter of which is new in Speedometer 3.0 due to web components and Lit tests. We devirtualized many functions and inlined more functions to reduce the function call overheads. We carefully reviewed performance profile data and removed inefficiency in hot paths like repeated reparsing of the same URLs .

Improving Layout and Rendering

We landed a number of important optimizations in our layout and rendering code. First off, most type checks performed on RenderObject are now done using an inline enum class instead of virtual function calls , this alone is responsible for around ~0.7% of overall progression in Speedometer 3.0.

Improving Style Engine

We also optimized the way we compute the properties animated by Web Animations code. Previously, we were enumerating every animatable properties while resolving transition: all . We optimized this code to only enumerate affected properties. This was ~0.7% overall Speedometer 3.0 progression. Animating elements can now be resolved without fully recomputing their style unless necessary for correctness.

Speedometer 3.0 content, like many modern web sites, uses CSS custom properties extensively. We implemented significant optimizations to improve their performance. Most custom property references are now resolved via fast cache lookups, avoiding expensive style resolution time property parsing. Custom properties are now stored in a new hierarchical data structure that reduces memory usage as well.

One key component of WebKit styling performance is a cache (called “matched declarations cache”) that maps directly from a set of CSS declarations to the final element style, avoiding repeating expensive style building steps for identically styled elements. We significantly improved the hit rate of this cache.

We also improved styling performance of author shadow trees, allowing trees with identical styles to share style data more effectively.

Improving Inline Layout

We fixed a number of performance bottlenecks in inline layout engine as well. Eliminating complex text path in Editor-TipTap was a major ~7% overall improvement. To understand this optimization, WebKit has two different code paths for text layout: the simple text path, which uses low level font API to access raw font data, and the complex text path, which uses CoreText for complex shaping and ligatures. The simple text path is faster but it does not cover all the edge cases. The complex text path has full coverage but is slower than the simple text path.

Previously, we were taking the complex text path whenever a non-default value of font-feature or font-variant was used. This is because historically the simple text path wouldn’t support these operations. However, we noticed that the only feature of these still missing in the simple text path was font-variant-caps . By implementing font-variant-caps support for the simple text path , we allowed the simple text path to handle the benchmark content. This resulted in 4.5x improvement in Editor-TipTap subtest, and ~7% overall progression in Speedometer 3.0.

In addition to improving the handling of text content in WebKit, we also worked with CoreText team to avoid unnecessary work in laying out glyphs. This resulted in ~0.5% overall progression in Speedometer 3.0, and these performance gains will benefit not just WebKit but other frameworks and applications that use CoreText.

Improving SVG Layout

Another area we landed many optimizations for is SVG. Speedometer 3.0 contains a fair bit of SVG content in test cases such as React-Stockcharts-SVG. We were spending a lot of time computing the bounding box for repaint by creating GraphicsContext, applying all styles, and actually drawing strokes in CoreGraphics. Here, we adopted Blink ’s optimization to approximate bounding box and made ~6% improvement in React-Stockcharts-SVG subtest. We also eliminated O(n^2) algorithm in SVG text layout code, which made some SVG content load a lot quicker .

Improving IOSurface Cache Hit Rate

Another optimization we did involve improving the cache hit rate of IOSurface. An IOSurface is a bitmap image buffer we use to paint web contents into. Since creating this object is rather expensive, we have a cache of IOSurface objects based on their dimensions. We observed that the cache hit rate was rather low (~30%) so we increased the cache size from 64MB to 256MB on macOS and improved the cache hit rate by 2.7x to ~80%, improving the overall Speedometer 3.0 score by ~0.7%. In practice, this means lower latency for canvas operations and other painting operations.

Reducing Wait Time for GPU Process

Previously, we required a synchronous IPC call from the Web Process to the GPU process to determine which of the existing buffers had been released by CoreAnimation and was suitable to use for the next frame. We optimized this by having the GPUP just select (or allocate) an appropriate buffer, and direct all incoming drawing commands to the right destination without requiring any response. We also changed the delivery of any newly allocated IOSurface handles to go via a background helper thread , rather than blocking the Web Process’s main thread.

Improving Compositing

Updates to compositing layers are now batched , and flushed during rendering updates, rather than computed during every layout. This significantly reduces the cost of script-incurred layout flushes.

Improving Safari

In addition to optimizations we made in WebKit, there were a handful of optimizations for Safari as well.

Optimizing AutoFill Code

One area we looked at was Safari’s AutoFill code. Safari uses JavaScript to implement its AutoFill logic, and this execution time was showing up in the Speedometer 3.0 profile. We made this code significantly faster by waiting for the contents of the page to settle before performing some work for AutoFill. This includes coalescing handling of newly focused fields until after the page had finished loading when possible, and moving lower-priority work out of the critical path of loading and presenting the page for long-loading pages. This was responsible for ~13% progression in TodoMVC-React-Complex-DOM and ~1% progression in numerous other tests, improving the overall Speedometer 3.0 score by ~0.9%.

Profile Guided Optimizations

In addition to making the above code changes, we also adjusted our profile-guided optimizations to take Speedometer 3.0 into account. This allowed us to improve the overall Speedometer 3.0 score by 1~1.6%. It’s worth noting that we observed an intricate interaction between making code changes and profile-guided optimizations. We sometimes don’t observe an immediate improvement in the overall Speedometer 3.0 score when we eliminate, or reduce the runtime cost of a particular code path until the daily update of profile-guided optimizations kicks. This is because the modified or newly added code has to benefit from profile-guided optimizations before it can show a measurable difference. In some cases, we even observed that a performance optimization initially results in a performance degradation until the profile-guided optimizations are updated.

With all these optimizations and dozens more, we were able to improve the overall Speedometer 3.0 score by ~60% between Safari 17.0 and Safari 17.4. Even though individual progressions were often less than 1%, over time, they all stacked up together to make a big difference. Because some of these optimizations also benefited Speedometer 2.1, Safari 17.4 is also ~13% faster than Safari 17.0 on Speedometer 2.1. We’re thrilled to deliver these performance improvements to our users allowing web developers to build websites and web apps that are more responsive and snappier than ever.