Apple Releases Safari 15.1 for macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

Apple Releases Safari 15.1 for macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina

Apple today released Safari 15.1 for macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina, giving Mac users who do not have macOS Monterey installed access to the latest Safari features.

macOS Monterey Release Candidate Safari Tabs Feature
Safari 15.1 reintroduces the previous tab design that was available prior to Safari 15. With Monterey and Safari 15, Apple introduced a new "Compact" look that changed the design of the tabs and unified them with the URL bar, but many people were not fond of that design.

In Safari 15.1, Apple undid those design changes and returned Safari to its pre-Monterey look, doing away with the updated design and the feature that blended the top bar in Safari with the background color of websites. Those who liked the new design can still enable it in Safari preferences, but the old design is the default.

Safari can be downloaded on machines running macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina by going to System Preferences > Updates. If you have macOS Monterey 12.0.1 installed, you already have Safari 15.1.

Tag: Safari

Popular Stories

iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
imac video apple feature

Apple Released Yet Another New Product Today

Friday March 20, 2026 2:39 pm PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
ios 26 4 yellow

Here Are Apple's Release Notes for iOS 26.4

Wednesday March 18, 2026 11:56 am PDT by
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4, which means we're going to see a public launch as soon as next week. The RC versions of the software include Apple's official release notes, giving us final details on what's included in the update. Apple Music - Playlist Playground (beta) generates a playlist from your...

Top Rated Comments

dannys1 Avatar
57 months ago
I want the old tabs with the colour matched title bar though!
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chucker23n1 Avatar
57 months ago
It's minor and doesn't really matter, but…




Why is "Show color in Compact Tab Bar" in "Advanced"? You already have the Compact/Separate radio buttons in "Tabs". Why not simply show the checkbox when "Compact" is selected.

(Also, that blue border is really slim. It's barely noticeable that "Separate" is selected.)

Attachment Image

Attachment Image
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
winexprt Avatar
57 months ago
Thank god. Couldn't stand that design.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DesertDrummer Avatar
57 months ago
Thank you, Apple. This was the right call from a UX perspective. People who love Compact Layout can still use it, and those of us who prefer Separate Layout can keep the previous version of it, which was more usable in that format.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
57 months ago

iOS 16 won’t have any design changes as apple will be scared to change anything; I miss the days apple told up what we like and we get used to it
Changing stuff in the pursuit of increased usability is cool. Breaking what already works is not.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
57 months ago
no more confusion!!
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Related Apple News: Iphone | Foldable Iphone | Ipad | Tim Cook | Bluetti Elite 30 V2 Power Station