Safari 18 Features: Highlights, New Reader Mode, and Video Viewer

In macOS Sequoia, Apple has some additional features in Safari 18 that are likely to be welcomed by Mac users. Here's a quick rundown of what's new.

safari highlights
Safari's headline feature in macOS 15 is something called Highlights, which aims to make it easier to discover information on the web.

Highlights can be accessed via a new site menu icon that appears in the address bar, from which you can quickly pull up relevant information about a site, such as directions, summaries, or quick links to learn more about people, music, movies, and TV shows.

As of writing this, Highlights does not appear to work outside of the United States, so it is likely to be region-specific at this early state. However, there are other changes to Safari that are live wherever you are located.

safari 18 reader
The Reader mode in Safari has received an overhaul, and now offers more customization options once you have enabled it on a site using the Reader button in the address bar.

If you click the button again, a dropdown menu lets you change the theme (white, off-white, gray, black) and choose your preferred font (Athelas, Charter, Georgia, Iowan, New York, Palatino, San Fransisco, Seravek, and Times New Roman).

In this menu, you can also find text size options by percentage (from 50% to 300%), as well as a "Find..." option to find a word or phrase on a page, and a button to Hide Reader mode.

Apple says that Reader can also provide a summary of an article, along with a table of contents in a sidebar, but we could not get this to work, likely because it is an aspect of Apple Intelligence, which will not be introduced until later in the year.

safari video viewer
Meanwhile, when Safari detects a video on the page, a new Video Viewer mode puts the media front and center, which allows you to adjust the window without obscuring the video. It also helpfully presents system playback controls within an overlay, including Picture in Picture.

In other Safari-related changes, ‌macOS Sequoia‌ beta adds support for opening links directly in web apps. Now, when you click a link, that link should open in the web app instead of your default web browser. You can also now personalize web apps on Mac with Safari Web Extensions and Content Blockers.

Lastly, Safari 18 beta for iOS, iPadOS, visionOS, ‌macOS Sequoia‌ and macOS Sonoma brings inline predictive text to the web, and you can now set which Safari profile should be used to open particular websites.

Related Roundup: macOS Sequoia
Tag: Safari
Related Forum: macOS Sequoia

Popular Stories

Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Will Bring Biggest Design Overhaul Since iOS 7

Monday March 10, 2025 12:17 pm PDT by
Apple is planning for a major design overhaul of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac interfaces with the introduction of iOS 19, iPadOS 19, and macOS 16 later this year, reports Bloomberg. The update will "fundamentally change" the look of Apple's operating system, introducing a more consistent cross-platform experience. Apple plans to update the style of icons, menus, apps, windows, and system...
ios 18 4 carplay

Apple Upgrades CarPlay in Two Ways

Wednesday March 12, 2025 6:05 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 18.4 update for the iPhone includes a smaller but meaningful improvement for Apple's in-car iPhone mirroring system CarPlay. Specifically, CarPlay now shows a third row of icons, up from two rows previously. However, this change is only visible in vehicles with a larger center display. For example, a MacRumors Forums member noticed the change in a Toyota Tundra with a...
Apple One Apps Feature 2

Apple One's Best Plan Now Includes Two More Perks For Free

Monday March 10, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Apple One allows you to subscribe to up to six Apple services for one discounted monthly price. There are three Apple One tiers: Individual, Family, and Premier. Over the last month, the highest-end ‌Apple One‌ Premier plan has gained two additional perks. Here is what Apple One Premier already included, for $37.95 per month:Apple Music Apple TV+ Apple Arcade Apple News+ Apple Fitness+...
airpods pro 2 gradient

AirPods Pro 3 Launch Now Just Months Away: Here's What We Know

Tuesday March 11, 2025 3:26 am PDT by
Despite being released over two years ago, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 continue to dominate the wireless earbud market. However, with the AirPods Pro 3 expected to launch in 2025, anyone thinking of buying Apple's premium earbuds may be wondering if the next generation is worth holding out for. Apart from their audio and noise-canceling performance, which are generally regarded as excellent for...
iOS 18

12 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.4

Monday March 10, 2025 9:28 am PDT by
Apple is set to release iOS 18.4 in early April, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a neat new capability to iPhone 15 Pro devices, new emoji, and more. While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.4 still introduces enhancements that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've listed 12 new...
iphone 17 mockups idevicehelp

Video Shows iPhone 17 Mockups Based on 'Internal Documents'

Monday March 10, 2025 4:41 am PDT by
YouTuber iDeviceHelp on Friday posted a video that shows off mockups of Apple's forthcoming iPhone 17 models that are purportedly based on "internal documents." We're sharing the video here since it was made in collaboration with leaker Majin Bu, who last month published similar iPhone 17 renders that were widely corroborated by separate leakers with links to Apple's Chinese supply chain....
iOS 18

iOS 18.3.2 Update Coming Soon for iPhones

Monday March 10, 2025 7:25 am PDT by
Apple employees are internally testing iOS 18.3.2 for iPhones, according to our website's visitor logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions. The software update should be released in the next week or two. iOS 18.3.2 will be a minor update that addresses software bugs and/or security vulnerabilities. Don't expect any new features. iOS 18.3.2 will be an interim...
Apple Maps vs Google Maps Feature

iOS 18.4 Adds a Highly-Requested Setting to iPhones — But Not in U.S.

Wednesday March 12, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by
iPhones are finally getting a much-requested setting, but availability is limited. The upcoming iOS 18.4 update introduces an option to set a default navigation app, other than Apple Maps, but unfortunately this new setting is limited to users in the EU. There, you can now set an app like Google Maps or Waze as your default navigation app on the iPhone by opening the Settings app and tapping ...
iOS 18

Apple Releases iOS 18.3.2 With Bug Fixes

Tuesday March 11, 2025 10:33 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.3.2 and iPadOS 18.3.2, minor updates for the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating systems that came out last September. iOS 18.3.2 and iOS 18.3.2 come a month after Apple released iOS 18.3.1 and iPadOS 18.3.1. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. According to Apple's release...

Top Rated Comments

Moriakum Avatar
10 months ago

People still use Safari? I tried it when i first had my Mac, but I could nto get on with it, then I tried it again a few weeks ago, but had problems with some sites not working, so I have gone back to Firefox.
I do. I use the handoff between macOS and iOS a lot, which works perfectly, and I love the feature of automatically filling in 2fa codes for SMS and emails. And it's worked very well, I think Safari has improved a lot in the last few years.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dredlew Avatar
10 months ago

People still use Safari? I tried it when i first had my Mac, but I could nto get on with it, then I tried it again a few weeks ago, but had problems with some sites not working, so I have gone back to Firefox.
Safari is still the second-most used browser. Far behind Chrome but also far ahead of Firefox.



Of course, most of that is iOS/iPadOS. But even on the desktop, Safari is ahead of Firefox and Safari is not even available on Windows & Linux, unlike Firefox. So yeah... People still use FireFox? :D



Attachment Image

Attachment Image
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Manzanito Avatar
10 months ago

People still use Safari? I tried it when i first had my Mac, but I could nto get on with it, then I tried it again a few weeks ago, but had problems with some sites not working, so I have gone back to Firefox.
I do. I was quite happy with it, until I got this weird issue where composing emails in hotmail was so slow that the typing experience was unbearable. Other than that, works all right for me.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Moriakum Avatar
10 months ago

Safari is still the second-most used browser. Far behind Chrome but also far ahead of Firefox.



Of course, most of that is iOS/iPadOS. But even on the desktop, Safari is ahead of Firefox and Safari is not even available on Windows & Linux, unlike Firefox. So yeah... People still use FireFox? :D


People love Chrome... Never understood why.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gk_brown Avatar
10 months ago

No fixes to the messy interface? I have no idea where to find stuff anymore. Scattered around the share sheet, under the A button, the refresh button, the extensions menu, third party buttons, …

And there are iCloud tabs, tab groups, profiles, tab group favorites, ….
Don't forget the sidebar!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Junior117 Avatar
10 months ago

People still use Safari? I tried it when i first had my Mac, but I could nto get on with it, then I tried it again a few weeks ago, but had problems with some sites not working, so I have gone back to Firefox.
I still use it.

It feels lighter to me and less of a RAM hog than Chrome (having 300+ tabs (yes, I know I'm insane) would still not be as intensive as 70 tabs in Chrome for me, but maybe I just have bad luck, I don't know).

I could never be able to fit Firefox. For whatever reason, the design just feels... off. (To be clear, I don't hate the design per se (it's a good design). I just can't seem to get myself to... like it for whatever reason.)
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)