The latest iPadOS 15 beta is adding macOS Monterey’s Redesigned Safari tab design.
The 4th beta of iPadOS 15 is a bit more subtle than the other Apple device betas, though its biggest change seems to involve how the Safari interface works, reads a new report from The Verge.
On previous versions of the iPadOS 15 beta, Safari had the Compact tab bar look a lot like the one on the iOS 15 version of Safari. Apple’s new adjustments bring iPadOS 15 Safari more in line with the macOS Monterey version of the browser, by making the tab bar bigger and below the URL field, and always on by default.
However, there’s an option in the iPad OS 15 beta 4 version of Safari to toggle back and forth between the old Compact Tab Bar layout and the new Separate Tab Bar layout, so you can switch back if you prefer the old ways.
While the separate tab bar is enabled automatically when updating, in the Safari section of Settings, there is an option to toggle on the original compact tab bar that merged everything together.
In both iOS and iPadOS 15, Apple introduced a compact and unified Safari design that got rid of the dedicated URL and search interface, instead letting any individual tab be used for navigation input.
This design has not been popular with users, likely leading to Apple making some changes during the beta testing period. As of now, Safari on iPadOS mirrors Safari on macOS Monterey, though additional design tweaks could come in the future.
