These New Features Could Really Make You Want to Use Safari
It’s hard not to use Safari when you’re on a Mac. The browser is fast, lightweight, and doesn’t drain your battery too quickly. Along with macOS Sonoma, Apple released Safari 17, which comes with a host of new features, including dedicated browsing profiles and the ability to turn websites into “apps.” Let’s take a look at all the new features worth checking out.
Keep work tabs away from your personal life
If you can surf the Internet freely on your work laptop, you should create separate profiles for work and personal data. You can set this up quite easily and separate your bookmarks, browser extensions, history, cookies and start page. When you switch profiles, you almost feel like you’re using a completely different device.
Better privacy while browsing
Safari 17 improves protection against tracker blocking and browser fingerprinting. This makes it difficult for shady advertising companies to learn more about your browsing habits. Safari also removes tracking URLs. All of this is enabled by default in private browsing mode, but you can also enable it for all browsing windows. Open Safari and click the Safari button in the top left corner of the screen. Go to Settings > Privacy > Advanced Settings and from the drop-down menu next to Use advanced tracking and fingerprinting protection, select Across all browsers .
Private browsing just got more private
When you use private browsing mode in Safari, the browser automatically locks your tabs when you stop viewing them. To unlock these tabs, you’ll have to use your Mac’s Face ID, Touch ID, or password. This is a good way to hide your private windows from others. You can even set up another search engine in private browsing mode. Go to Safari Settings > Search and select a new search engine from the drop-down menu next to the Private Browsing search engine .
Keep your favorite websites in the Dock
If you regularly visit certain websites, Safari 17 allows you to convert them into “apps” that you can save in the Dock. We have a detailed guide to help you set this up .
Automatically close Safari tabs on your Mac
Yes, you can finally tell Safari to automatically close all open tabs. This feature has been available on your iPhone and iPad for several years now, and it’s finally coming to Mac. Check this by going to Safari Settings > Tabs > Automatically close tabs .
The favorites bar now has icons
This is more of a cosmetic tweak than anything else, but it will please some people. If you like a little extra touch in your browser, you’ll be glad to know that Safari 17 also displays icons in the Favorites bar. This will help you quickly identify the site you want to visit.
More control over which browser extensions can have access.
Safari allows you to set privacy controls for your browser extensions. You can now allow extensions on a per-site basis; for example, if you want to use the YouTube extension only on YouTube and one other site, you can do so now.
Use the desktop widget to track links you’ve saved for later reading.
If you use Safari’s Reading List feature frequently, you can now add a widget to your desktop to keep track of your saved articles. macOS Sonoma supports desktop widgets, and we have a detailed guide on how to get the most out of this feature . You can choose from three widget sizes. Depending on the space on your desktop and the number of articles on your reading list, you may want to choose something that won’t disrupt the aesthetics of your desktop.