macOS Big Sur For MacBooks Tip: How To Use New Safari Tabs

Apple’s new operating system version for Mac devices, macOS 11 Big Sur, contains a slew of new features and enhancements meant to give users the best Mac experience yet. These include a few improvements to some of its apps, such as Safari.

The Cupertino-based tech giant has added a few improvements to the Safari browser to make it more convenient to use compared to other browsers such as Chrome. There’s a new online Translation feature that intuitively translates supported foreign languages quickly. There are also a few changes to how Safari Tabs work.

New Safari Tabs features

Apple improved Safari’s Tabs so that users will be able to see what websites they have on their tabs without having to open them. It also allows users to see what tabs they have running on Safari on their iPhone, iPad or another Mac.

Here’s how to use these new features:

• Safari Tab Preview

Safari now lets users see thumbnail previews of any tab they have open, except the one they are currently using. This will help those who tend to use many tabs at once, especially when the website name isn’t displayed on the tabs anymore.

To use the feature, all users need to do is to hover their cursor over any tab, then wait for a few moments until a preview thumbnail appears.

• iCloud Tabs

While the above feature lets users see thumbnail previews of one tab at a time, Safari’s new iCloud Tabs feature allows users to see several thumbnail previews at a time.

To use this feature, all users need to do is to click on the overlapping squares icon at the top-right of the screen. They will then be presented with a collection of thumbnail previews of all the open tabs.

This only works to show open tabs in one window, however. Those who run several Safari windows at one time will need to check each window to look at what’s running.

• Opening tabs on other devices on the Mac

Big Sur also lets users open the tabs they have on their iPhones or iPads on their Macs. This will let users do certain things, such as continue reading on their Mac what they were reading on their iOS device.

To do this, users will need to click on the overlapping squares icon at the top-right of the Safari window, then scroll down past the preview thumbnails onto a list of open Safari tabs running on their other iDevices. Clicking on an item on the list opens that tab on the Mac.