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Apple is slowly reversing its controversial decision to redesign Mobile Safari in iOS 15 to show the address bar at the bottom of the screen, floating above the page content. The redesign, which was largely aimed at making it easier to access Safari’s controls with one hand, was criticized because Apple’s other design choices actually made the new experience less usable than before. With the latest version of iOS 15 beta 6, Apple is responding to user comments and complaints with the introduction of another design that now shows the bottom tab bar below the page content, providing a more standardized experience. for those who would have otherwise liked to update it. More importantly, perhaps, Apple is no longer forcing the bottom tab bar on users.
With the new version, there is now an option to display the address bar at the top of the page, as before. For anyone who really hated the update, that means they can go back to “normal”.
Image credits: Screenshots, tab bar before and after
An important complaint about the floating tab bar was that it made some websites almost unusable, because the bar would block the items you had to click. (To access those inaccessible parts of the page, you’ll have to drag the bar down – a less than ideal experience).
In iOS 15 Beta 6, these and other issues are fixed. Essentially, the tab bar looks a lot like it used to be – with a familiar row of buttons, like it used to be when it was available at the top of the screen. And the bar will no longer interfere with website content.
The testers also pointed out that Apple’s initial decision to hide often-used features – like the reload button or player mode – under the three-dot “more” menu made Safari more difficult to use than in the past. With the release of iOS 15 beta 4, Apple tried to fix this problem by bringing back the reload and share buttons, and by bringing up player mode when available. But the buttons were still small and harder to touch than before.
The new tab bar and the return to normal it offers – regardless of where it is at the top or bottom of the screen – is an admission from Apple that user complaints about it were, in fact , valid. And that’s a demonstration of what beta testing is supposed to be: trying new ideas and fixing what doesn’t work.
Separately, beta 6 users can now restore the tab bar to the top of the page, if that’s your preference. You can now find an option under Settings -> Safari to choose between the default Tab Bar option and the Single Tab option – the latter that moves the address bar to the top of the screen. (This means you’ll lose the ability to navigate your open tabs, as you might with the tab bar, however.)
It’s pretty common for Apple to offer alternatives to its default settings – like how it lets users configure how gestures and clicks work on the Mac’s trackpad, for example, or how it lets users turn off. the previously debated “natural” scroll direction. option. But the addition of the option to flip tab to top is an admission that a good chunk of Safari users didn’t want to relearn how to use one of iPhone’s most frequently viewed apps. And if they are forced to, they may have changed browsers instead.
As Apple typically releases the latest version of its iOS software in the fall, this update may represent one of the last changes to Safari that we’ll see ahead of the public release.
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