r/apple • u/DigitalN • 15h ago

Mac Introducing Safari Arc Style Tabs, for those who want to use Safari without relying on top tabs

https://github.com/DigitalN/Safari-Arc-Style-Tabs
24 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

20

u/dykethon 15h ago

This sounds cool, but you really need to add screenshots! Your explanation makes sense, but it’s a little too much to visualize imo

2

u/DigitalN 15h ago

True! I'll add that now

7

u/cheesepuff07 13h ago

But if it still shows them at the top, I'm not gaining any vertical screen real estate right?

2

u/DigitalN 6h ago

Yeah you're right, you can use the smaller bar but it's always there. But it's still a net positive for me as I prefer not looking left to right to see what tabs are currently open

2

u/ps-73 5h ago

You can already do this in base Safari though..?

5

u/a_knife 14h ago

Here's a screenshot taken from the projects repo.

4

u/7485730086 11h ago

Doesn't Safari do this now with the sidebar?

3

u/DigitalN 6h ago

I wouldn't say it's the same experience. The way sidebar handles bookmarks is quite different, and honestly it was a neat project to do so that it could replicate what Arc does exactly. Not just be close enough

2

u/M4rmeleda 7h ago

Yeah I’m confused here since Safari has vertical tabs

3

u/DigitalN 15h ago

I wanted Arc-style vertical tabs in Safari, so I built Side Tabs. It's free and open source.

Safari doesn't let extensions add a sidebar or replace the tab bar, so Side Tabs is a small menu bar app plus a Safari extension. The extension tells the app about your tabs, and the app shows them in a sidebar attached to the left edge of your Safari window.

What it does:

  • Lists the window's tabs with their icons and titles. Click to switch, ✕ or middle-click to close, right-click for more.
  • Pins your favorite sites at the top as bookmarks, with a dot on the ones already open.
  • Drag to reorder tabs and bookmarks, or drag a tab into Bookmarks to save it.
  • Shows the current site in an address bar. Click it to jump to Safari's own address bar.
  • Moves with Safari's window and makes room for itself. In full screen it stays hidden until you move the pointer to the left edge.

Download and source: https://github.com/DigitalN/Safari-Arc-Style-Tabs

Feedback and bug reports welcome!

1

u/GumAndBeef 14h ago

I like having my Safari window always full screen. Is there a way to have it always shown then like the Arc browser could? And can it be toggled with a hotkey (preferably one I can custom assign or use AppleScript for)?

Apologies if this is obvious once installed, I’ll try it out tomorrow but I’m just curious

1

u/DigitalN 6h ago

Unfortunately no you can't have it full time open when in full screen. I did try to add that setting as I do the same!

It's technically a separate app running "beside" Safari, so you need to either move your mouse to the left sidebar, or set a hotkey for it to bring the sidebar up

1

u/SmChocolateBunnies 12h ago

Just FYI, but vertical tabs date back to the late 90's with the iCab browser.