Upcoming features of Safari 9

Apple engineers have announced the upcoming version of the native Apple web browser at the Apple WWDC event. Safari 9 is backed with some really interesting features, especially for web and application designers as well as developers. Safari 9 have features like Scroll Snapping, Pinned sites, Force touch events, ECMAscript 6, CSS filters, etc. Here we are going to discuss some of the exceptional features of Safari 9.

Ad blocking extension

Safari 9 is getting equipped with lots of new features and ready to be launched sometime around the fall. But the only feature that every publisher should be concerned about is the “Ad Blocking Extension”. Safari will allow users to effectively block advertisements and pop ups. Users will be able to download the extension that blocks the adds on most of the sites. This content blocking extension for new safari browser will let users easily block cookies, images, resources, pop-ups and other contents. Users won’t need to reset the setting on every page you visit. This extension will work throughout the browser. As safari is one of the most used web browsers across the globe, this could be the warning alarm for the Advertisers.

Backdrop CSS filters

Apple has added the Backdrop-filter CSS properties to the Safari 9. This allows developers to include fancy dynamic effects on the page. The backdrop-filter accepts the values from the regular CSS filter specifications. You can also apply multiple backdrop-filters just like the other filters. Backdrop-filters are available for several effects like blur, brightness, contrast, drop-shadow, grayscale, hue-rotate, invert, opacity, saturate and sepia, etc. Developers will be able to apply these filters with dynamic content like videos as well. And all these filters are compatible with the W3C standards.

Scroll Snapping

It is one of the important announcements for the web designers. Scroll snapping will be done using CSS from onwards. It is currently achieved using the JavaScript. But designers won’t need to rely on JavaScript now. This change will make surfing through single page website very easy and comfortable. Safari 9 includes various scroll snapping properties. That includes webkit-scroll-snap-type, -webkit-scroll-snap-points-y, -webkit-scroll-snap-points-x, -webkit-scroll-snap-destination, and -webkit-scroll-snap-coordinate etc.

Pinned Sites

Pinned sites are the latest way introduced by Safari to keep your favorite websites open for quicker access. You don’t actually need to leave the opened tab to access the pinned sites in Safari. Users need to drag the opened tab to the left to pin the website and a small icon will be created from the quick access. You need to create a small solid black icon with transparent background for your website and save it as an SVG to let others pin your website on the bookmark bar. Then you need to link that icon to the head of the HTML document. You can also customize the color of the icon by adding the meta tags immediately after you link the icon in Head tag.

Developer Mode Updates

Safari is going to make lots of updates in Developer mode that includes Responsive design mode and other UI changes. Responsive design mode lets you switch faster across different viewports for specific design. It helps you quickly rectify the design issues with different screen sizes. All the apple devices will be added as default in responsive design mode. Apple has also changed the web inspector layout to provide better user experience. New layout lets you navigate quickly between different development tasks.

New Safari browser will offer HTML5 video enhancements using PiP style and Air Play along with the force touch event identification. That will be achieved via new set of JavaScript. Apple has focused on improving the system performance and user experience in new Mac OS EI Caption. It looks like the new features and updates of Safari 9 is also focused on the same. The new version of the browser is not available for the users as of now. We have to wait till the fall, to know how it affects the performance of the system.