iOS 27.3 Adds Vertical Tabs and Adaptive Dark Mode to Safari

With iOS 27.3, iPadOS 27.3, and macOS Golden Gate 27.3, Apple is making major updates to Safari. The browser is getting a Vertical Tabs layout, which can be used instead of the standard horizontal tab bar. It's a change that pairs well with the iPhone Duo's larger display, but it is available across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Vertical Tabs are located on the left side of the display and use icons by default to save space, but there is an option to make the tab bar wider to show website titles as well. Vertical Tabs work with both Topics and Tab Groups to keep things organized. Topics are created when automatic Apple Intelligence tab sorting is turned on in iOS 27. Pinning tabs by dragging, quickly swapping between Tab Groups, and other features also continue to work.

The option to turn on Vertical Tabs is located in the Safari settings or in the View menu on Mac and ‌iPad‌.

Apple is adding Adaptive Dark Mode for websites that don't have a dark mode design option by default. If you use ‌Dark Mode‌ and then browse to a website with a bright background color, Safari will offer an option to "Try" Adaptive ‌Dark Mode‌.

After tapping Try, Safari renders a ‌Dark Mode‌ version of the page that makes the background darker, changes text contrast, inverts logos and graphics, recolors vector artwork, lifts raised surfaces, and rebalances layered shadows. Each website will be adapted based on what's needed to make it readable, so not every tweak is applied to every site. You can opt to turn Adaptive ‌Dark Mode‌ on for all sites or on a site-by-site basis after using it.

If a site has a native dark mode or has a dark design already, Adaptive ‌Dark Mode‌ won't activate. Developers can also add a tag that causes Safari to ignore Adaptive ‌Dark Mode‌ and show the website as the developer intended.

Along with these visual changes, Apple is adding new Siri AI actions. ‌Siri‌ can take action on tabs and windows, sorting, moving, closing, and arranging in Tab Groups. ‌Siri‌ also has control over web history, and you can ask it to clear your history for a particular site and for a set time period, such as the last 10 days.

‌Siri‌ can already see what's on your screen, but soon, ‌Siri‌ will also be able to understand the full content of webpages, including non-active tabs and content not in view. You will be able to ask questions about information across websites, so if you have multiple tabs open when shopping for an item, ‌Siri‌ will be able to sort them by price or give you information on the product that you're looking at. Apple says the ‌Siri‌ awareness feature is coming, but it's not in the first beta.

The changes to Safari are available for developers starting today in the latest betas. An Apple Intelligence-capable device is required for the ‌Siri‌ features.

iOS 27.3, iPadOS 27.3, and ‌macOS Golden Gate‌ 27.3 will launch this December after several rounds of beta testing to refine the new features.