In Fact, You Should Accept the New Safari Search Bar
The Safari redesign for iOS 15 sparked controversy, if only because the original design was too radical . However, if you can get past its placement at the bottom of the screen, the tab bar, which appeared in the final build of iOS 15 today , will please you. There are even a few gestures that can make it much more useful than using a single tab view ( which you can always go back to if you’re afraid of changes), and none of them work if you are using a single tab view, which means that you are sacrificing usability if you want Safari’s address bar to appear at the top of your screen.
Swipe to switch tabs
You can swipe right or left on the Safari tab bar to switch to the previous or next tab. This allows you to quickly switch between tabs without a few taps. It takes time to get used to it, but once you get the hang of it, this tab-switching gesture proves its worth.
Swipe left to open the start page
If you’re on the last Safari tab on iOS 15 , you can swipe left across the tab bar to open a new tab with the start page. This doesn’t work if you’re already on the start page, but while you’re on the last open tab on any other web page, just swipe left to start over.
(While you’re at it, be sure to customize the iOS 15 Safari start page to your liking. A clutter-free start page is required.)
Swipe up to see all open tabs
By now, it’s pretty clear that Safari gestures are modeled after iOS 15. This gesture is similar to the operating system’s app switcher: swipe up from the tab bar in Safari on iOS 15 and the browser will display all open tabs .
Safari changed the tab page layout in iOS 15 so instead of a stack view, you’ll see rectangular thumbnails. That said, a couple of iOS 14 gestures are still useful here: you can still drag and drop any open tab to reorder the tabs. Likewise, in Tab View, swipe left on any open tab to quickly close it. The tab close button is now located in the upper right corner of the tab thumbnail, and you can always click on it to close the tab.
This article was last updated on Tuesday September 21st to clarify the scrolling direction of the tab bar.