Safari has been a big part of Apple’s ecosystem for years, allowing you to browse webpages and access your favorite content. Apple’s web browser gets new updates every year, making it a useful tool for Apple fanatics. In macOS Catalina, Safari receives some new cool new features. And we will help you discover how in the section below.
Keep in mind that you are going to need macOS Catalina to access Safari’s new features. macOS Catalina is now available as a beta which is a little bit buggy, so we recommend you install it on a secondary device.
Safari’s Start Page gets some polish
The default Safari start page has not received a major update since the days of macOS High Sierra. In macOS Catalina beta, Safari now can learn your web browsing habits and then displays Siri suggestions of web pages you might want to visit when you start up your web browser.
However, you still see things that have been familiar to you since the days of macOS Sierra, including Favorites and Frequently Visited. The Siri Suggestions section sits at the bottom and lists all of your recently-visited webpages, Reading list links, and more.
Smarter Tab Switching
In macOS Catalina, Safari does not get a significant update over its previous version. However, it comes with some little handy things that make what you do most quicker and better.
In this case, tab switching in Safari is now smarter than before. Indeed, when you enter a web address (URL) into the browser and that web-page is already open in another tab, you will be prompted to switch to that tab. This helps you save some time and avoid opening multiple Safari tabs at the same time.
Move Safari Windows to Left or Right
In macOS Catalina, you can quickly move a Safari window to the left or right side of your screen. This allows you to use two windows at the same time on your Mac. To do this, click on Window at the top menu, then select Tile Window to Left or Right of Screen from the drop-down menu. Once you do this, your window moves to the left or right of your screen.
Picture-in-Picture Mode
Picture-in-picture has been an integral part of Android devices for years. In macOS Catalina, Safari officially supports Picture-in-Picture, allowing you to watch videos while performing other tasks on your machine.
To enable PiP mode in Safari, click and hold the Audio icon in the URL box, and then select Enter Picture in Picture from the drop-down menu. To exit PiP mode, hit the X button in the upper corner of the window.
Wrapping Up
| Pros | Cons |
| Faster performance | Crashing in macOS Catalina beta |
| Start Page is better | Picture-in-picture sometimes not responding |
| Smarter Tab Switching | Siri Suggestions fail to display your recently-visited websites |
| Picture-in-Picture mode | Some features are limited to Mac |
Safari did not get a significant upgrade in macOS Catalina as expected, but it introduced some of the features we have been demanding for years. Despite some problems, it is really worth your shot.
What do you think of Safari in macOS Catalina? Let us know in the comments below.
