{"id":53767,"date":"2026-11-04T15:10:51","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T20:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=53767"},"modified":"2026-11-04T15:10:51","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T20:10:51","slug":"safari-27-3-vertical-tabs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/04\/safari-27-3-vertical-tabs\/","title":{"rendered":"Safari 27.3: Vertical Tabs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jason Snell<\/a> (MacRumors<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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In recent years, numerous browsers have experimented with re-orienting the traditional top-of-the-page tab bar into a vertical stack, and now Safari is joining the parade. (It makes sense, when you think about it, because most of our screens are much wider than they are tall, putting vertical space at a premium.<\/p>\n

Vertical tabs aren’t a default, but they are now a new option. The tabs sit on the left sidebar as a strip of icons by default, but if you prefer you can resize the tab bar to also show tab titles. On the Mac, Apple has built a hover effect reminiscent of the macOS Dock that displays the name of the tab when you move the pointer over its icon, and if you pause and hover, it’ll display a floating window with a visual page preview.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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I got an advance demo of this last week and I’m really looking forward to trying it. I’ve gotten very used to horizontal tabs over the years, but a long time ago<\/a> I was a devoted user of the Omni Group’s OmniWeb browser, of which one of my favorite features was its vertical tabs. That was so long ago, the tabs went in a drawer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

I liked this in OmniWeb<\/a> and also in NetNewsWire 3, which had vertical thumbnail tabs on the right side of the window.<\/p>\n\n

Ron Stewart<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Hopefully, allowing the vertical stack of tabs to be positioned on right side isn’t far off, too. Chrome, Firefox, Vivaldi all support it, and - as a right-handed user - it feels much more natural to me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Brave<\/a> also added vertical tabs a few years ago (Hacker News<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n

Adam Engst<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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But now that I’ve become a complete convert to the wonders of vertical tabs, I’m seeing them everywhere. Or perhaps the industry has hit some sort of intersection between users clamoring for the option and browser makers gaining the gumption to brainstorm better interfaces. Whatever the reason, if you’re not using vertical tabs now, I’d encourage you to try them, either in your current browser or one of the newcomers mentioned below.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Francisco Tolmasky<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Every app should have both vertical and horizontal tabs. Neither one is better, they’re for different things. Vertical tabs display “everything” in the current context, while horizontal tabs show your “current focus”. IDEs get this right, just about everything else doesn’t, from browsers to Messages to Slack. Messages is a great example, it would be so much nicer on the Desktop app to have my “favorites” just as horizontal tabs instead of pinned bubble faces in my “every conversation ever” list.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n