The new Safari design in macOS Monterey has been controversial, to say the least. The new design is radically different from previous versions of Safari, with features like color adaptivity, a dynamic url bar, and buttons crammed into a single three-dot list. Luckily, Twitter user Zhuowei Zhang has found a way to bring back the old design if you’re not happy with the new one.
This might all be a temporary fix, as Apple could easily remove this ability in a subsequent beta of Monterey. But bringing back the Big Sur Safari design isn’t too difficult. In fact, all you have to do is create a new plist file within the macOS library.
If you’re running the macOS Monterey beta, you can follow Zhuowei’s steps over on their Github page to bring back the legacy Safari tab bar design. You’ll need to copy and paste a snippet of code that disables the “UnifiedBar” feature flag. Once you’ve created the file, make sure to reboot your Mac to allow the change to take effect.
Once you’ve followed Zhuowei’s steps, you’ll have your fully customizable old-school tab bar back in Safari. While Apple may remove this in the future, the fact that this is possible at all suggests that the team might be considering a user toggle to switch between the two layouts.
What do you think about the new Safari design in macOS Monterey? Are you going to try and switch your Safari back to the old design? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
To get the old tab bar on Safari for macOS 12, create/Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/Safari.plisthttps://t.co/1fBPy5UXnmand reboot. pic.twitter.com/7giZ6y8XpD
— Zhuowei Zhang (@zhuowei) June 15, 2021
