By Jason Snell

October 18, 2021 3:46 PM PT

Safari 15 Watch: Old tabs edition

Note: This story has not been updated since 2021.

It’s official: As of the latest macOS Monterey beta—version 12.0.1, which makes me wonder if they’ve locked version 12.0 on the new MacBook Pro models and everyone else will jump straight to 12.0.1—Safari tabs have been reverted to their original “tab” appearance, instead of being a bunch of floating lozenges.

I feel bad for everyone at Apple who worked hard on building a new Safari design only to see it entirely reverted just before shipping. That said, it was the right decision, and I’m glad it never made it into the final version.

(And it’s not completely gone: If you opt for the Compact tab layout in Safari’s Preferences, you’ll get the original narrow lozenge-style tab design.)

Also gone, apparently: That colored toolbar that shifts based on the design of the currently active tab. If you scroll down when you’re at the top of a page, you’ll get a glimpse of that color, but it appears to have vanished from the chrome at the top of the window.

All these changes seem to have also been made to the release candidate of iPadOS 15.1, too. Hooray.

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