How to change Safari tabs back to stacked iOS 15

The recent iOS 15 update has changed the way tabs are viewed in safari. Previously, the tabs appeared “stacked”, meaning that the title of each web page fit onto the screen, and the X button to close them was in the same position for every tab, making it easy to open and close them. The recent update has switched to a new view which displays the tabs as separate windows, meaning that the web page titles are too short to be of any use and sorting through tabs now means going back and forth across the screen. Is there any way to change back to the previous design? Alternatively, does anyone know of a decent alternate browser which doesn’t have this problem?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 8, iOS 15

Posted on Nov 12, 2021 4:42 AM

Top-ranking reply

Chris_C1

Community Specialist

Posted on Nov 13, 2021 8:02 AM

Hi JMurchie,

Thank you for posting in Apple Support Communities. We understand you'd like to change the way Safari displays tabs in iOS 15.

"You can choose between the top Single Tab you’re used to and the new bottom Tab Bar layout.

Go to Settings > Safari, then scroll down to Tabs.
Select either the Tab Bar or Single Tab layout.
You can move between layouts without losing the tabs you have open."

As discussed here: Customize your Safari settings on iPhone

Cheers!

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184 replies

Sep 15, 2022 8:29 AM in response to jalenarose

I agree-they don’t seem to care about the end user.

The stacking system was such a brilliant idea to save space , and it looked really good too.

Jan 13, 2022 5:38 AM in response to JMurchie

I really dislike the new update when it comes to safari. I really liked when tabs were stacked and it was easier to see what your last tab was. The separate tabs idea is super flawed, and was a really bad design choice. If anything safari should have not been updated except for app bugs.

Especially the fact that they decided to move the search bar to the bottom of the screen. It really messes up my typing, and I’m at least glad they had the option in settings to change back to one tab search, which places the search bar back to the top.

In conclusion, I hope they end up changing it back to the past version. It was more convenient, and was easier to navigate.

Dec 27, 2021 9:30 PM in response to Peeboh123

Yup, Opera Browser is the solution. Nicely stacked background pages and an ad blocker.

Jun 24, 2022 8:04 PM in response to JMurchie

I completely agree at the very least make it so it’s optional to make tabs stack

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How to change Safari tabs back to stacked iOS 15