How To Use Safari Tab Groups Like A Pro
African safaris seem pretty cool
I spent 78 hours working on my college applications (results coming out this month 🤞).
Tab Groups gave me a virtual office: I had a dedicated space in Safari where I could find prompts, check my grammar, and create compelling essay responses.
Here's the when, where, what, how, and why breakdown of Tab Groups (plus a few tips and tricks thrown in):
What
Here's my best attempt to summarize Tab Groups in one sentence: "Tab Groups is a relatively new feature that lets users separate Safari tabs into separate Tab Groups, helping users separate different workflows."
Think folders but for Safari tabs.
When
Tab Groups is reaching its second birthday—it was introduced in 2021 with iPadOS 15.
Since then, Apple has given Tab Groups a few birthday gifts.
For its first birthday (iPadOS 16), Tab Groups got:
1. Pinned Tabs: a feature that lets you pin certain tabs to prioritize them
2. Tab Group Start Pages: a feature where you can access unique favorites, frequently visited sites, and other options in each Tab Group
3. Shared Tab Groups: the ability to share Tab Groups and collaborate with others
Where
First, go to Safari and click the weird sidebar button in the top left corner.
Then, you can tap the + button to open up a new tab group (either from scratch or with any tabs you currently have open).
You can also access Tab Groups from the opened sidebar (I currently have an "Overoptimize" Tab Group set up).
How
Use Tab Groups to organize your work (in other words, don't be the guy with 347 tabs open).
My Experience
With my college applications, I used Tab Groups to create a "separate browser" for my research. For instance, my Tab Group for college apps usually included a word counter, Grammarly, essay tips, application advice, etc.
With this blog, I use Tab Groups to separate my research from my other work. Otherwise, I'd make the mistake of confusing an English essay for a blog post.
Collaboration
Remember that you can also use Tab Groups to collaborate—with iPadOS 16, the ability to share Tab Groups is a game-changer.
As a student debater, research is pretty important. Being able to share Tab Groups means that I can collaborate with other teammates on the same research ideas.
This is an underrated feature: it streamlines research collaboration and makes group research projects far easier.
Pinned Tabs
Pinning tabs is also a pretty useful feature—It helps you prioritize certain tabs if needed.
As an online writer, pinning webpages with helpful writing tips helps me improve over time: they serve as a constant reminder of best practices and the pursuit of improvement.
Why
Tab Groups keep you focused and organized (two words that go together better than "Lewis Hamilton" and "World Drivers' Championship").
I'm a big opponent of distraction—as a teen, it's the nemesis of my friends' productivity.
I love using Focus Modes, Guided Access, and other iPadOS features to cut out distractions and enter a powerful flow state. These flow states are where I can truly get stuff done.
Tab Groups is another anti-distraction feature. And for that, I love it.
Final Thoughts
"Organizing is a journey, not a destination"—Unknown
Thanks for reading!
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Tab groups make no sense and your article does little to explain their utility and “how to”.