Safari 27.3 Beta Adds Vertical Tabs and Adaptive Dark Mode

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

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.

I got an advance demo of this last week and I’m really looking forward to trying it. I’ve gotten very used to horizontal tabs over the years, but a long time ago I was a devoted user of the Omni Group’s OmniWeb browser, of which one of my favorite features was its vertical tabs. That was so long ago, the tabs went in a drawer.

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.

There are some popular Safari extensions that offer this, but Safari 27.3 has the feature built-in, and the demo I saw looked great. It kicks in for light-background websites that don’t offer a dark mode alternative presentation, and it allows for web developers to explicitly opt out.

Link: macrumors.com/2026/11/03/ios-27-3-safari/