The Safari app on our Mac comes with a large number of options and functions, such as the reading list, the autocompletion of passwords, tools to protect our privacy, etc. But what if we want more? In that case we install extensions, small additions to Safari that third parties develop to provide more functionality . These extensions can be easily added and removed, let’s see how.
How to check the extensions we have installed
Before adding or removing anything, let’s start by seeing what extensions we have installed in Safari . The steps are very simple:
- We open the Safariapp on our Mac.
- In the Safarimenu we choose Preferences .
- We enter the Extensionstab .
Here in the left sidebar is the list of all the extensions that are installed in Safari . Each of these extensions has a tick to its left that tells us if it is activated or deactivated.
In the right part of the window, once we have selected a specific extension from the list, the information about the extension itself appears. In addition to the name and version, which appears at the top, we see what permissions the extension has, which is very important for our privacy .
How to remove extensions from Safari
Well, we have already seen what extensions we have installed, now we are going to remove them . The process is very simple, again:
- We open the Safariapp on our Mac.
- In the Safarimenu we choose Preferences .
- We enter the Extensionstab .
We select the extension that we want to remove and on the right side we touch the Uninstall button . Alternatively, for example if we want to check if we need a certain extension, we can click on the tick to its left to deactivate it. Later if we see that it is not necessary we can eliminate it. Sometimes, when the extension depends on an app, Safari will inform us about it and offer us Show in Finder . Tapping it will open Finder in the Applications folder with the selected app from where we can drag it to the trash and enter the administrator password if requested.
How to add extensions to Safari
Once the cleaning is done, we can add certain extensions that give our Safari more and more functions. Safari extensions can be downloaded as files from various pages on the web, although, unless we have full confidence in the developer and check download hashes and file integrity, it is best to go to the App Store .
In the App Store we can find a multitude of extensions that, like all the content of the store, has been reviewed by Apple to ensure that they do not contain any harmful code. Let’s see how to do it:
- We open the Safariapp on our Mac.
- In the Safarimenu we choose Safari Extensions .
We will automatically see that a Mac App Store window opens where various extensions are listed . We can get any of them by tapping Get . As soon as it has been downloaded, we will see that Safari alerts us with a banner, at the top, in which we can touch Activate and review .
IN APPLESFERA
How to set a wallpaper in Safari 14 for macOS Big Sur, Catalina or Mojave
That easy. Do we need to do more with Safari? With these steps we can add new extensions, review the ones we have installed, as well as eliminate the ones we no longer need or at least deactivate them until we are sure.
