Safari in macOS 26 has broken something fundamental: the stability of the interface.

Since 2021, Apple’s browser carried an understated feature IMHO: Compact Tabs. 
Even if they weren’t universally loved, they embodied an important principle for me: technology staying out of the way.

Compact Tabs kept Safari’s chrome minimal, they gave you “your content”, without any of the fuss, and more importantly they followed these three principles:

• They avoided layout shifts;
• They preserved spatial memory;
• They reserved space ahead of time.

In macOS 26, Safari’s new chrome ignores these values. The interface is consuming more vertical space than before.

Opening a new tab with ⌘ + click is a fuck you to the user: the browser asserts itself over the content, moving what you’re focused on. This is the opposite of transparent computing.

This matters because stability is trust. Apple walked away from one of the most important design principles: interfaces should get out of the way.

Even Firefox now does a better job at getting out of the way.