Apple announces new Safari profiles and WebKit features

The latest version of Apple’s Safari was announced at WWDC as part of the newly announced macOS Sonoma. The new browser version brings new privacy features including the ability to lock your browser window, block trackers, and remove URL trackers. Safari can also now share passwords and passkeys to groups using iCloud Keychain. The transfer is done with end-to-end encryption.

Perhaps the biggest new addition to Safari is the ability to create profiles. Now when you’re browsing, you can sandbox your activities separately for things like work and personal browsing. This feature will help prevent data and trackers from mixing and help you browse more organized.

Apple is focusing again on WebApps, allowing developers to take advantage of the new Add to Dock feature to quickly access the programs you want. Safari is built on top of the WebKit engine, which is also getting a lot of under-the-hood updates including adding vibration support for controllers, support for external webcams in the iPad version of Safari, and AVIF support for older ones. macOS versions start with Big Sur.

Apple claims that Safari is “the best way to browse the web” and “the world’s fastest browser”. Notably, iOS and iPadOS third-party browsers still require WebKit to run under the hood.