Apple announced exciting new features coming to Safari with iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and macOS Big Sur this Fall. These cover everything from customizable start pages to detailed privacy reports.
If you haven’t had time to check out WWDC 2020 yet, take a look at our detailed breakdown of all the new Safari features below.
When browsing the web on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you can use Safari to translate foreign websites with a single tap. Since it’s currently a beta feature, translation is only available in the US and Canada.
Safari automatically detects when you encounter a website in your non-primary language. When this happens, a translate icon appears in the address field. Either tap or click this translate icon to make Safari translate the entire page.
Translation works with the following seven languages:
English
Spanish
Chinese
French
German
Russian
Brazilian Portuguese
Increased performance and power efficiency
Apple has worked hard to make Safari even faster than it was before. Utilizing the JavaScript engine in iOS and iPadOS 14, Safari is now twice as fast as Google Chrome is on Android.
Mac users can also rejoice as Apple boasts that Safari loads pages 50% faster than Google Chrome does in macOS Big Sur. This measurement applies to frequently visited websites, presumably thanks to intelligent data caching by Safari.
Safari in macOS Big Sur also offers better power efficiency than any other browser. Compared to Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, Safari lets you browse online for an extra hour on a single MacBook battery charge.
When streaming videos online, Safari gives you an extra three hours!
Password monitoring alerts you to potential data breaches
Not only does Safari make it easy to import your browsing history, bookmarks, and saved password from Google Chrome. But it automatically checks your passwords to make sure they are still secure.
Whether using iOS 14, iPadOS 14, or macOS Big Sur, Safari uses strong cryptographic techniques to scan derivations of your passwords against recently breached data. Safari automatically checks your passwords in the background, repeating the check periodically.
All the while, Safari ensures your password data remains absolutely private. Safari doesn’t even reveal your information to Apple!
If one of your passwords is breached or insecure, Safari prompts you to generate a new secure password. Alternatively, the new updates let you upgrade your account to use Sign in with Apple instead.
Privacy reports reveal who’s tracking you online
Find out which websites are tracking you online.
Privacy is important to Apple, and now Safari is making it easier than ever to see which websites value your privacy online. When you click the Privacy Report button on the toolbar, Safari shows you a detailed breakdown of all the cross-site trackers it has blocked in the last 30 days.
This Privacy Report shows you:
the number of known trackers prevented
the percentage of websites you visited that contacted trackers
which tracker has been contacted the most
and a list of websites you visited with the trackers they contacted
By viewing the Safari Privacy Report in iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and macOS Big Sur, you can learn which websites value your privacy and which ones share your information with others.
Customize your Safari start page in macOS Big Sur
Check the boxes to choose what to view on your Safari start screen.
When you open Safari in macOS Big Sur, you’ll be greeted by a beautiful new start screen. It’s customizable to show exactly what you want to see. Choose your own background image from a stock selection or pick something your Photos library.
Alongside the background image, your start page can also show:
Your Reading List
Your Favorite websites
iCloud Tabs from other devices
Siri Suggestions
and a Privacy Report
Improved Safari tabs in iPadOS and macOS
Hover over a tab to view a preview of that website.
Using multiple tabs is much easier with Safari in iPadOS 14 and macOS Big Sur. Apple’s new updates add colored Favicons to your tabs by default, making it far easier to find what you’re looking for at a glance. You can also see more tabs at once as they dynamically change size to fit on your screen.
On macOS Big Sur, you can even hover your cursor over a tab to view a website preview. This will make it infinitely easier to manage multiple tabs at once. And when it’s time to minimize, use the new option to close all tabs to the right, to simplify your browsing in a snap.
Expect more extensions with improved privacy
Safari extensions let you choose when to allow access.
Subtle improvements to extensions in Safari are coming with macOS Big Sur in Fall. First and foremost, there will be a new extensions category in the Mac App Store that makes it easier to find the extensions you want.
This extensions category will highlight the most popular extensions, including editorial spotlights and top charts. Rest assured, Apple reviews and signs every extension on the App Store to guarantee the highest quality.
And before long there should be far more Safari extensions than ever before, as Safari gains support for the WebExtensions API. This will make it easier for developers to migrate extensions from Chrome to Safari.
Finally, Apple continues to prioritize your privacy by making Safari the only browser that lets you enable or disable extensions for specific websites. This protects you from a variety of loopholes that allow extensions to view every site you visit, including what you type into those sites.
Just like the privacy allowances in iOS and iPadOS, Safari lets you choose to allow extension access for all time or only for a single day.
Find out all the new features in iOS 14
Apple made a lot of exciting software announcements at WWDC20, including the reveal of iOS 14, iPadOS 14, macOS Big Sur, and more. We can expect these updates to release to the public in Fall.
Dan writes tutorials and troubleshooting guides to help people make the most of their technology. Before becoming a writer, he earned a BSc in Sound Technology, supervised repairs at an Apple Store, and even taught English in China.
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