The arrival of the new version of Safari announced at WWDC21 to macOS Big Sur and Catalina has allowed us to start using its novelties before the arrival of macOS Monterey , and one of the most interesting are the groups of tabs that we can establish with all the web pages that we want. After a few days testing them, I am going to explain what is necessary to be able to get comfortable with them.
Each task with its group of tabs
Safari’s tab groups allow you to classify tabs based on what you do with them. For example, you can have a group of tabs to show several websites that you use to find and buy a gift, and another group to bring together those websites that you consult to investigate something at work. Thus, instead of showing all the tabs at all times, you only have the ones you need to focus on on the screen .
First of all, make sure you have the latest version of Safari (15) installed on your Mac. You can update it from System Preferences, in the Software Update tab. You do not need to reboot to do so.
Once you’ve updated, open Safari. Access the File menu and click on ‘ New empty tab group ‘:
The group will be created, and Safari will show you its left sidebar where you can see a list of the groups of tabs you use. You have to give a name to the group of tabs you just created :
As you can see, the group of tabs is selected in blue. You are already within that group, and therefore all the tabs that you open at this time will be stored in it . If it bothers you, you can hide the Safari sidebar and access the groups of tabs using the new button on its toolbar:
Apart from each group of tabs, you will always have the “general” tabs not assigned to groups , it is not possible to establish a group in which all the tabs go by default. Although at the end of the day, that general area can also be valued as its own group. Each time you select a group its tabs will be shown and the rest will be hidden.
To delete a group of tabs, just access that group and go to the File menu> ‘Delete group of tabs’:
Keep in mind that those tab groups sync to iCloud , so they’ll show up on your iPhone and iPad (and other Macs) too if you have them. As a quick reference from the mobile, they also turn out to be an interesting Swiss army knife , as David Bernal told us in this other tutorial .
How to create your own concentration modes in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15
Like everything, you can adopt the use of those groups or simply ignore them and work as before. Each user is different, so these groups will be more or less useful depending on the way you work with the browser. I’m personally giving them a try and will stick with them.
