6 ms·

Safari Technology Preview 248 Released

91 points by ErenayDev 3mo ago

alberth 3mo ago
The team has been on a roll lately with massive fixes & improvements. Like last months announcement of over 500 fixes. https://webkit.org/blog/17967/news-from-wwdc26-webkit-in-safari-27-beta/ https://webkit.org/blog/17967/news-from-wwdc26-webkit-in-saf...
- bombcar 3mo ago
  They finally used some of those trillions to buy one (1) Claude pro subscription.
  - lern_too_spel 3mo ago
    It's because the EU is forcing competition on them for iOS Safari, and iOS Safari shares code with MacOS Safari. Now they have to at least try to keep up.
    - SaltyBackendGuy 3mo ago
      I am OOTL - How does the EU force competition in this context?
      - fragmede 3mo ago
        The EU passed laws to force Apple to allow other browser engines to run. Previously, all iOS browsers were reskinned WebKit by Apple decree.
        ulfw 3mo ago
        And is there any other browser engine actually running on iOS anywhere?
        ulfw 2mo ago
        Getting downvoted but no answer. So Hackernews
        lern_too_spel 2mo ago
        There are several under development. Microsoft recently claimed their Blink-based prototype is almost 30% faster than iOS Safari.
    - nwah1 3mo ago
      And it wasn't just laziness that made them drag their feet. They actively fear the web as a platform, and very much want everyone to do everything through their app stores, using their own macOS/iOS-exclusive proprietary SDKs... which also means developers themselves needing to acquire a Mac with XCode, and a Developer subscription.
- ksec 3mo ago
  The Safari beta is actually covering ~6 months of work in WebKit. So it isn't one release with 500 fixes. It is more of a consolidation. But yes WebKit has been getting tons of feature gap and bug fixed in the past 2-3 years. I think it accelerated during Safari 17, and Safari 18 has been the release that I find it good enough for most cases and finally with no rendering issues on all the site I browse. I have been trying to get the release note and update from Safari on HN frontpage but it never got much attention. Hopefully like you others will see how far Safari has come. And out of all the features coming from new macOS releases it has always been Safari that I am most looking forward to. At the same time I still think it has some way to go before catching up to Firefox and Chrome is many areas. But at least it is improving fast.
argee 3mo ago
Does this help stable Safari in any way? I have a WebKit bug I’m tracking that’s fixed in STP but not in stable and it seems like there’s no telling whether it’ll ever land.
- lapcat 3mo ago
  It'll land eventually. They always do, though maybe months down the road. But of course Apple won't preannounce its plans, and unfortunately I'm not aware of a way to track WebKit commits in specific Safari releases.
lapcat 3mo ago
This update fixed some web inspector bugs that I reported, but I can't use it because Safari Technology Preview inexplicably supports fewer macOS versions than Safari itself, i.e., no longer Sequoia.
- kstrauser 3mo ago
  I don't know, given that Safari is bundled with the OS, targeting a newer macOS seems pretty explicable.
  - lapcat 3mo ago
    Safari supports 3 major macOS versions. For example, Safari 26 continues to support Sonoma and Sequoia as well as Tahoe: https://support.apple.com/en-us/127685 https://support.apple.com/en-us/127685 Safari 27 will support Golden Gate, Tahoe, and Sequoia. However, Safari Technology Preview now supports only Golden Gate and Tahoe, despite the fact that the same WebKit commits will make their way into regular Safari on Sequoia. Thus, it seems that Apple is just shooting itself in the foot by failing to test sufficiently on one supported platform.
paddingtone 3mo ago
And they recently released the Safari MCP in STP as well. https://webkit.org/blog/18136/introducing-the-safari-mcp-server-for-web-developers/ https://webkit.org/blog/18136/introducing-the-safari-mcp-ser... Looks like the Safari MCP is also now available in the most recent Golden Gate beta part of system Safari: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safari-developer-tools/connecting-an-ai-agent-to-safari https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safari-developer-t...
nikanj 3mo ago
It’s impressive that pinch-zooming reddit.com in-out-in-out has reliably crashed ios safari for at least a few years already. One would assume Apple gets telemetry from iphone default browser crashes, and reddit seems important enough to warrant a fix
- lapcat 3mo ago
  This was fixed but then reverted. No further updates 3 months later. https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=305622 https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=305622 Not sure how this comment is related to Safari Technology Preview, though, which is Mac-only.
  - steve1977 3mo ago
    On the other hand, Reddit is trying so hard to funnel users to their app that this bug might solve itself at some point.
  - nozzlegear 3mo ago
    Kind of a confusing title, but maybe it means more to the WebKit team. I don't think I've ever seen jetsam used as a verb before.
  - nikanj 3mo ago
    The only way for commoners to reach the actual devs is HN or similar, bug trackers are as useful as a wishing well. The odds of Safari devs reading the comments on a Safari-related HN piece is quite high, and reporting long-standing bugs here might actually get fixes See also: the biweekly ”Microsoft closed my account and is stonewalling me” post here. Those reliably manage to break the customer service blockade
    - lapcat 3mo ago
      > The only way for commoners to reach the actual devs is HN or similar, bug trackers are as useful as a wishing well. This is untrue for the WebKit open source project. Many of the bugs I've reported via the Bugzilla have been fixed.
Affric 3mo ago
Since they nixed uBlock Origin Safari has not been a serious web browser to me. No amount of technology can make up for it.
- paddingtone 3mo ago
  I've been using uBlock Origin Lite on Safari with no issues. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ublock-origin-lite/id6745342698 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ublock-origin-lite/id674534269...
  - jvican 3mo ago
    I use Adguard/wipr to great success. Why's uBlock Origin better? Also, wipr now has filtr, which provides URL filtering at the macOS level, so it's as efficient as it gets.
    - jjice 3mo ago
      I use AdGuard, Wipr, and uBlock Origin Lite on my iPhone, and uBlock Origin on desktop. I swear there are little gaps in each that the others get, but they're very minor. When uBlock Origin Lote recently released on iOS (within the last year), I noticed a few more things blocked. I also prefer the custom element removal or uBlock and can reuse my desktop filters. It's free, so I'd recommend adding it as an addition to the bunch.
    - kstrauser 3mo ago
      Seconded for Wipr. It's my favorite adblocker I've tried yet (although 1Blocker is also really nice). And if the author sells it to some creepy company, the Safari API means that the new owner can't spy on my viewing. I'm not sure how it could be materially improved by using less privacy-respecting APIs.
      - flyingshelf 3mo ago
        > the new owner can't spy on my viewing Quick question: how do you distinguish content blocker extensions from regular extensions? All the Adblockers I know have to use both to be effective at hiding ads, especially on YouTube. In that case, the new owner can still do the spying.
bearjaws 3mo ago
I cannot use a browser that is owned by a company who's financial model is dependent upon browsers being nerfed. Apple and Google have far too many incentives to wall garden browsers, Apple due to the app store, Google due to advertising. Independent browsers are the only safe path forward.
- dbbk 3mo ago
  What did they nerf
  - unsungNovelty 3mo ago
    PWA for starters? They are not interested in Indie devs anyways. Might as well let us use PWA no?
    - dbbk 3mo ago
      How
    - phoghed 3mo ago
      Safari arguably has better PWA support than Firefox last time I checked.
    - nozzlegear 3mo ago
      PWAs enjoy excellent support in Safari: https://pwascore.com https://pwascore.com
  - bearjaws 3mo ago
    Apple: adblocking, PWA being put in a odd spot, surely to be followed by a post "nobody was using it" before being removed, if they mention it at all. Google: ad blocking
    - dbbk 3mo ago
      Ad blocking isn't nerfed
SigmundA 3mo ago
Wonder if they will ever fix upload progress using XHR, pretty annoying to not be able show accurate progress to the user when using larger chunk sizes: https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=277286 https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=277286
JSR_FDED 3mo ago
After being so disappointed by Tahoe and the whole Alan Dye era, it’s great to see Apple getting their mojo back. Golden Gate is shaping up to be a great release.
exabrial 3mo ago
Please, can we put the "Disable Javascript" menu back in the Developer menu
- saagarjha 3mo ago
  Not sure why they removed this tbh
- e12e 3mo ago
  Been gone a while? https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/465150/make-shortcut-to-enable-disable-javascript-with-safari-17-0 https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/465150/make-shortc...
  - exabrial 3mo ago
    :( pretty sad thats the easier workaround. Its unbelievably handy during development.
robrobrobrob 3mo ago
Please add way to maximize the window. I rage quit when it goes fullscreen or just tall.
- woodson 3mo ago
  Try option-click on the green icon in the app window. It’s well hidden and unintuitive, but I think it does what you want.
  - rwc 3mo ago
    (bonus: this is not exclusively a Safari feature, this is a macOS feature)
  - robrobrobrob 3mo ago
    option click does not fully maximise!
- norgie 3mo ago
  Fn-Control-F or hover over the green dot and pick the maximize option
  - robrobrobrob 3mo ago
    omg it works.. why is this so hard?
- HaloZero 3mo ago
  I just use Rectangle. It's got all the core functionality. https://rectangleapp.com/ https://rectangleapp.com/
- pupppet 3mo ago
  I hate this default behavior on the green button. I can count the number of times I've intentionally wanted a full-screen app on one hand.
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
geerlingguy 3mo ago
The one feature I would love to see is WebSerial support, now that Firefox has it too.
kqp 3mo ago
Anybody know how to get Safari to “sanitize” on shutdown (delete cookies, cache, etc), except for whitelisted domains? After lots of fiddling I’ve realized this is probably the best privacy/convenience compromise for me, but Safari is the only browser I can’t even find a plugin to do it in.
- dylan604 3mo ago
  s/Safari/Firefox/ and it is super simple to do this. I know that's not helpful to the question as asked, but possibly a better answer??? As for Safari, closest I see is Preferences -> General -> Remove History Items. It has options ranging from After One Day, one week, one month, never. I don't see an option for at quit like FF has.
CuriousRose 3mo ago
Safari is the only real opposition to Google based browsers at the moment. Yes Firefox is a contender, but it has no brand traction among non-power users. Google has the brand, Safari has the defaults and energy efficiencies of the growing Apple laptop/desktop market. Although not open source, I trust it far more that a Google based browser as Apple - aside from PWAs competing with their App Store - has no real incentive to commodify, restrict or surveil the web like Google does.
- owebmaster 3mo ago
  > aside from PWAs competing with their App Store Yeah. Aside. Let's just ignore that Apple intentionally prevents users from using the browsers most needed feature for the common user today killing it just like they killed Flash.
  - nozzlegear 3mo ago
    Intentionally how? Mobile Safari has pretty broad support for PWAs: https://pwascore.com https://pwascore.com
    - owebmaster 3mo ago
      It does not. It doesn't support the installprompt event and hides the "add to home screen" behind 4 actions/clicks to make sure the users don't easily install PWAs.
      - nozzlegear 3mo ago
        So one missing thing is enough to decide that PWA support isn't broad and Apple doesn't care about them, despite all those supported PWA APIs? > behind 4 actions/clicks to make sure the users don't easily install PWAs. I maintain a PWA for retainer client. Our website has a paragraph telling users how to install the PWA via the share button. We'd have a paragraph telling them how to install it from the App Store too if it weren't a PWA.
majima 3mo ago
if only they bring back safari to windows

91 points by ErenayDev 3mo ago

The team has been on a roll lately with massive fixes & improvements. Like last months announcement of over 500 fixes. https://webkit.org/blog/17967/news-from-wwdc26-webkit-in-safari-27-beta/ https://webkit.org/blog/17967/news-from-wwdc26-webkit-in-saf...

bombcar 3mo ago
They finally used some of those trillions to buy one (1) Claude pro subscription.
- lern_too_spel 3mo ago
  It's because the EU is forcing competition on them for iOS Safari, and iOS Safari shares code with MacOS Safari. Now they have to at least try to keep up.
  - SaltyBackendGuy 3mo ago
    I am OOTL - How does the EU force competition in this context?
    - fragmede 3mo ago
      The EU passed laws to force Apple to allow other browser engines to run. Previously, all iOS browsers were reskinned WebKit by Apple decree.
      - ulfw 3mo ago
        And is there any other browser engine actually running on iOS anywhere?
        ulfw 2mo ago
        Getting downvoted but no answer. So Hackernews
        lern_too_spel 2mo ago
        There are several under development. Microsoft recently claimed their Blink-based prototype is almost 30% faster than iOS Safari.
  - nwah1 3mo ago
    And it wasn't just laziness that made them drag their feet. They actively fear the web as a platform, and very much want everyone to do everything through their app stores, using their own macOS/iOS-exclusive proprietary SDKs... which also means developers themselves needing to acquire a Mac with XCode, and a Developer subscription.
ksec 3mo ago
The Safari beta is actually covering ~6 months of work in WebKit. So it isn't one release with 500 fixes. It is more of a consolidation. But yes WebKit has been getting tons of feature gap and bug fixed in the past 2-3 years. I think it accelerated during Safari 17, and Safari 18 has been the release that I find it good enough for most cases and finally with no rendering issues on all the site I browse. I have been trying to get the release note and update from Safari on HN frontpage but it never got much attention. Hopefully like you others will see how far Safari has come. And out of all the features coming from new macOS releases it has always been Safari that I am most looking forward to. At the same time I still think it has some way to go before catching up to Firefox and Chrome is many areas. But at least it is improving fast.

argee 3mo ago

Does this help stable Safari in any way? I have a WebKit bug I’m tracking that’s fixed in STP but not in stable and it seems like there’s no telling whether it’ll ever land.

lapcat 3mo ago
It'll land eventually. They always do, though maybe months down the road. But of course Apple won't preannounce its plans, and unfortunately I'm not aware of a way to track WebKit commits in specific Safari releases.

lapcat 3mo ago

This update fixed some web inspector bugs that I reported, but I can't use it because Safari Technology Preview inexplicably supports fewer macOS versions than Safari itself, i.e., no longer Sequoia.

kstrauser 3mo ago
I don't know, given that Safari is bundled with the OS, targeting a newer macOS seems pretty explicable.
- lapcat 3mo ago
  Safari supports 3 major macOS versions. For example, Safari 26 continues to support Sonoma and Sequoia as well as Tahoe: https://support.apple.com/en-us/127685 https://support.apple.com/en-us/127685 Safari 27 will support Golden Gate, Tahoe, and Sequoia. However, Safari Technology Preview now supports only Golden Gate and Tahoe, despite the fact that the same WebKit commits will make their way into regular Safari on Sequoia. Thus, it seems that Apple is just shooting itself in the foot by failing to test sufficiently on one supported platform.

paddingtone 3mo ago

And they recently released the Safari MCP in STP as well. https://webkit.org/blog/18136/introducing-the-safari-mcp-server-for-web-developers/ https://webkit.org/blog/18136/introducing-the-safari-mcp-ser... Looks like the Safari MCP is also now available in the most recent Golden Gate beta part of system Safari: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safari-developer-tools/connecting-an-ai-agent-to-safari https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safari-developer-t...

nikanj 3mo ago

It’s impressive that pinch-zooming reddit.com in-out-in-out has reliably crashed ios safari for at least a few years already. One would assume Apple gets telemetry from iphone default browser crashes, and reddit seems important enough to warrant a fix

lapcat 3mo ago
This was fixed but then reverted. No further updates 3 months later. https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=305622 https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=305622 Not sure how this comment is related to Safari Technology Preview, though, which is Mac-only.
- steve1977 3mo ago
  On the other hand, Reddit is trying so hard to funnel users to their app that this bug might solve itself at some point.
- nozzlegear 3mo ago
  Kind of a confusing title, but maybe it means more to the WebKit team. I don't think I've ever seen jetsam used as a verb before.
- nikanj 3mo ago
  The only way for commoners to reach the actual devs is HN or similar, bug trackers are as useful as a wishing well. The odds of Safari devs reading the comments on a Safari-related HN piece is quite high, and reporting long-standing bugs here might actually get fixes See also: the biweekly ”Microsoft closed my account and is stonewalling me” post here. Those reliably manage to break the customer service blockade
  - lapcat 3mo ago
    > The only way for commoners to reach the actual devs is HN or similar, bug trackers are as useful as a wishing well. This is untrue for the WebKit open source project. Many of the bugs I've reported via the Bugzilla have been fixed.

Affric 3mo ago

Since they nixed uBlock Origin Safari has not been a serious web browser to me. No amount of technology can make up for it.

paddingtone 3mo ago
I've been using uBlock Origin Lite on Safari with no issues. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ublock-origin-lite/id6745342698 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ublock-origin-lite/id674534269...
- jvican 3mo ago
  I use Adguard/wipr to great success. Why's uBlock Origin better? Also, wipr now has filtr, which provides URL filtering at the macOS level, so it's as efficient as it gets.
  - jjice 3mo ago
    I use AdGuard, Wipr, and uBlock Origin Lite on my iPhone, and uBlock Origin on desktop. I swear there are little gaps in each that the others get, but they're very minor. When uBlock Origin Lote recently released on iOS (within the last year), I noticed a few more things blocked. I also prefer the custom element removal or uBlock and can reuse my desktop filters. It's free, so I'd recommend adding it as an addition to the bunch.
  - kstrauser 3mo ago
    Seconded for Wipr. It's my favorite adblocker I've tried yet (although 1Blocker is also really nice). And if the author sells it to some creepy company, the Safari API means that the new owner can't spy on my viewing. I'm not sure how it could be materially improved by using less privacy-respecting APIs.
    - flyingshelf 3mo ago
      > the new owner can't spy on my viewing Quick question: how do you distinguish content blocker extensions from regular extensions? All the Adblockers I know have to use both to be effective at hiding ads, especially on YouTube. In that case, the new owner can still do the spying.

bearjaws 3mo ago

I cannot use a browser that is owned by a company who's financial model is dependent upon browsers being nerfed. Apple and Google have far too many incentives to wall garden browsers, Apple due to the app store, Google due to advertising. Independent browsers are the only safe path forward.

dbbk 3mo ago
What did they nerf
- unsungNovelty 3mo ago
  PWA for starters? They are not interested in Indie devs anyways. Might as well let us use PWA no?
  - dbbk 3mo ago
    How
  - phoghed 3mo ago
    Safari arguably has better PWA support than Firefox last time I checked.
  - nozzlegear 3mo ago
    PWAs enjoy excellent support in Safari: https://pwascore.com https://pwascore.com
- bearjaws 3mo ago
  Apple: adblocking, PWA being put in a odd spot, surely to be followed by a post "nobody was using it" before being removed, if they mention it at all. Google: ad blocking
  - dbbk 3mo ago
    Ad blocking isn't nerfed

SigmundA 3mo ago

Wonder if they will ever fix upload progress using XHR, pretty annoying to not be able show accurate progress to the user when using larger chunk sizes: https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=277286 https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=277286

JSR_FDED 3mo ago

After being so disappointed by Tahoe and the whole Alan Dye era, it’s great to see Apple getting their mojo back. Golden Gate is shaping up to be a great release.

exabrial 3mo ago

Please, can we put the "Disable Javascript" menu back in the Developer menu

saagarjha 3mo ago
Not sure why they removed this tbh
e12e 3mo ago
Been gone a while? https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/465150/make-shortcut-to-enable-disable-javascript-with-safari-17-0 https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/465150/make-shortc...
- exabrial 3mo ago
  :( pretty sad thats the easier workaround. Its unbelievably handy during development.

robrobrobrob 3mo ago

Please add way to maximize the window. I rage quit when it goes fullscreen or just tall.

woodson 3mo ago
Try option-click on the green icon in the app window. It’s well hidden and unintuitive, but I think it does what you want.
- rwc 3mo ago
  (bonus: this is not exclusively a Safari feature, this is a macOS feature)
- robrobrobrob 3mo ago
  option click does not fully maximise!
norgie 3mo ago
Fn-Control-F or hover over the green dot and pick the maximize option
- robrobrobrob 3mo ago
  omg it works.. why is this so hard?
HaloZero 3mo ago
I just use Rectangle. It's got all the core functionality. https://rectangleapp.com/ https://rectangleapp.com/
pupppet 3mo ago
I hate this default behavior on the green button. I can count the number of times I've intentionally wanted a full-screen app on one hand.

deleted 3mo ago

[deleted]

geerlingguy 3mo ago

The one feature I would love to see is WebSerial support, now that Firefox has it too.

kqp 3mo ago

Anybody know how to get Safari to “sanitize” on shutdown (delete cookies, cache, etc), except for whitelisted domains? After lots of fiddling I’ve realized this is probably the best privacy/convenience compromise for me, but Safari is the only browser I can’t even find a plugin to do it in.

dylan604 3mo ago
s/Safari/Firefox/ and it is super simple to do this. I know that's not helpful to the question as asked, but possibly a better answer??? As for Safari, closest I see is Preferences -> General -> Remove History Items. It has options ranging from After One Day, one week, one month, never. I don't see an option for at quit like FF has.

CuriousRose 3mo ago

Safari is the only real opposition to Google based browsers at the moment. Yes Firefox is a contender, but it has no brand traction among non-power users. Google has the brand, Safari has the defaults and energy efficiencies of the growing Apple laptop/desktop market. Although not open source, I trust it far more that a Google based browser as Apple - aside from PWAs competing with their App Store - has no real incentive to commodify, restrict or surveil the web like Google does.

owebmaster 3mo ago
> aside from PWAs competing with their App Store Yeah. Aside. Let's just ignore that Apple intentionally prevents users from using the browsers most needed feature for the common user today killing it just like they killed Flash.
- nozzlegear 3mo ago
  Intentionally how? Mobile Safari has pretty broad support for PWAs: https://pwascore.com https://pwascore.com
  - owebmaster 3mo ago
    It does not. It doesn't support the installprompt event and hides the "add to home screen" behind 4 actions/clicks to make sure the users don't easily install PWAs.
    - nozzlegear 3mo ago
      So one missing thing is enough to decide that PWA support isn't broad and Apple doesn't care about them, despite all those supported PWA APIs? > behind 4 actions/clicks to make sure the users don't easily install PWAs. I maintain a PWA for retainer client. Our website has a paragraph telling users how to install the PWA via the share button. We'd have a paragraph telling them how to install it from the App Store too if it weren't a PWA.

majima 3mo ago

if only they bring back safari to windows