Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced in March 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.
Safari Technology Preview release 131 includes bug fixes and performance improvements for Web Inspector, CSS, Web API, JavaScript, Platform Features, Media, Web Audio, WebRTC, Payment Request, WebCrypto, Accessibility, and Rendering. Apple warns that Tab Groups do not sync in this release.
The current Safari Technology Preview release is built on the Safari 15 update included in macOS Monterey, and as such, it includes several Safari 15 features. There's a new streamlined tab bar with support for Tab Groups to organize tabs, along with improved support for Safari Web Extensions.
Live Text allows users to select and interact with text in images on the web, but the macOS Monterey beta and an M1 Mac is required. There's also Quick Notes support for adding links and Safari highlights to remember important information and ideas.
Other updates include WebGL 2 and new HTML, CSS, and JavaScript features.
The new Safari Technology Preview update is available for both macOS Big Sur and macOS Monterey, the newest version of the Mac operating system that's set to release this fall.
The Safari Technology Preview update is available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences to anyone who has downloaded the browser. Full release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website.
Apple's aim with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.
Top Rated Comments
[SPOILER]Just revert to Safari 12.0 design, pls.[/SPOILER]
The reason that Safari is linked to macOS upgrades is that Apple integrates Safari with other frameworks on a deeper level to optimize it for battery life and performance; stuff like Metal and CoreUI. The newer versions of the system frameworks are not backported to previous macOS versions, so Apple limits them as much as possible to reduce regressions and QA/CS work. That's why it's not just Safari that's being linked to macOS, it's everything else as well; including iCloud, Mail, Music, TV, Notes, etc. They're all upgraded once a year.
Do Apple have to do this? No. Apple wants to move the whole tech stack further faster and drop backward compat stuff much faster than other companies. They can't drop support in a minor OS version, which is why they do major OS versions instead.
Is it the best way of doing things? Well, it is working for Apple in this case given how much of their iOS users are upgrading rapidly compared to any other markets.
I expect all of this to be rolled into Safari 15, and for that to ship with Monterey, presumably in October. So about six weeks from now.
And yeah, aside from the controversial tab change (which have mostly been corrected, but still aren't ideal IMHO), and for missing tab groups sync (which makes the feature a lot less useful for me, but which will presumably launch later this year when it's stable), I would say recent Safari TPs are perfectly reliable and Safari 15.0 should launch quite well.