Samsung just copied Safari's most controversial feature because of course

News
By Oliver Haslam
published

Iphone 12 Pro Ios 15 Safari
Iphone 12 Pro Ios 15 Safari (Image credit: Christine Romero-Chan / iMore)

What you need to know

  • Samsung's mobile web browser now has its address bar at the bottom of the screen after a new change.
  • Apple was the first to make the switch last month and people still aren't sure about it.

When Apple decided to move Safari's address bar to the bottom of the screen with the iOS 15 release, people weren't convinced it was the best move. Weeks later, they still aren't — except someone at Samsung. They're very sure, because they decided to make the company's own web browser do the same thing.

Following a new update, Samsung's own web browser now puts the address bar at the very bottom of the screen, just like Safari. Coincidence?

https://twitter.com/dcseifert/status/1455711773802258437

Just like Safari, Samsung's browser has an option to move the address bar back to the top of the screen — where some might argue it should always be.

While Safari isn't the first web browser to try this switch, the timing of Samsung's move is obviously going to be called into question given the proximity to Apple's Safari changes. None of this will really matter to iPhone users of course, they don't have access to the Samsung browser anyway. Even if they did, Safari would likely still be the best iPhone browser available. It's just interesting to see Samsung borrow so heavily from Apple. Again.

Safari on iPhone wasn't the only version of the popular web browser to go through controversial changes this year. The macOS Monterey Safari refresh saw tabs move all over the place throughout the beta program, with Apple essentially undoing all of its changes by the time the update was ready to be installed on machines around the world.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.