iOS 15 launches this week and brings with it a lot of new features including Live Text, Focus modes, a new Weather app, FaceTime enhancements as well as more features like FaceTime screen sharing coming later this year. However, one of the more drastic changes is to Safari. Apple has dramatically redesigned the layout of Safari, as well as adding new features like Tab Groups. However, if you don’t like the new UI, you can go back. Here’s how.
On the iPad, Apple has redesigned the tab bar with new button shapes and a compact layout option for how the tabs are arranged in the Safari toolbar.
On the iPhone, there is a more drastic change. The address bar now sits at the bottom of the screen above the toolbar, and there’s a new look for the tabs screen too. It’s fair to say that the default design on iOS 15 is a pretty big departure from what came before.
Why did Apple redesign Safari? Apple said they are bringing important controls closer to your fingers with a bottom-oriented appearance. That means the address bar is now easier to access with one hand, especially if you have a larger iPhone like an iPhone 13 Pro Max. As well as being able to tap into the address bar, you can also now swipe left and right on the tab bar to quickly switch between tabs with a gesture.
However, if you really don’t like the new UI of Safari, you can make it look and work like iOS 14 again. Mostly.
How to put the address bar back on top
To move the URL bar in iPhone Safari back to the top of the screen, it’s quite easy.
When browsing inside of Safari on iOS 15, tap the “Aa” button in the address bar. Then press the ‘Show Top Address Bar’ in the menu that appears. In Top Address Bar mode, Safari will look almost identical to how it looked on iOS 14.
The new grid design of the Tabs view cannot be reverted however. If you want to go back to the new bottom address bar design, simply press the Aa button again and choose ‘Show Bottom Tab Bar’.
You can also change this layout setting from the Settings app. Navigate to Settings -> Safari -> Tabs -> select Single Tab.
How to disable color tinting
One more subtle Safari design change is that iOS 15 will now tint the top toolbars of Safari to reflect the accent color of the website. For example, if you are viewing a website with a red background, the top toolbar of Safari will also inherit the red theme. This is more noticeable on iPad and Mac but it applies to iPhone too. Again, if you don’t like this effect, you can turn it off.
Unlike reverting the Safari address bar design, the color tinting option can only be changed in Settings. Navigate to Settings -> Safari -> Tabs -> toggle Allow Website Tinting to off.
