The iOS 26 Safari browser on iPhone evokes the new design system featuring Liquid Glass, with floating toolbars and buttons that shine through the web page content behind them as you scroll.
Ever since the controversial iOS 15 Safari redesign, iPhone Safari has offered two layout modes ‘Tab Bar’ and ‘Single Tab’. In iOS 26, these are renamed to ‘Bottom’ and ‘Top’ respectively, and there’s a brand new default called ‘Compact’. While it should still feel familiar, all modes have received design changes to suit the new Liquid Glass-infused system theme.
The complaints during the iOS 15 cycle revolved around the fact Apple had moved the Safari URL bar from a fixed toolbar at the top of a screen into a floating element at the bottom of the screen that receded into a smaller size as the user scrolled up and down.
Apple ultimately compromised by making some changes to the behavior of the Bottom toolbar layout, as well as offering the old-style Top layout option as a user preference.
For iOS 26, the new default mode called Compact is very much reminiscent of the earlier iOS 15 incarnations. The URL bar sits at the bottom of the screen, detached from the edge, and aligns between the back button and the ••• button to reveal more page controls. As you scroll down, the elements shrink to a smaller minimized size, and bounce back when you scroll up.
The new Bottom design switches from a docked to a floating design, but retains the essence of what iOS 18 called the ‘Tab Bar’ mode, with a full-width URL bar and a full-width toolbar of navigation controls when expanded. When you scroll down the page, the chrome minimizes and looks identical to the Compact layout mode.
The traditional Top layout remains the most conservative option. Like the rest of the system theme, the top and bottom toolbars are now floating rather than docked, so that their corners are concentric with the curved screen of the phone. Like previous OS versions, the toolbar also recedes on scroll.
If you want to use a different Safari layout on iOS 26, open Settings -> Safari -> Tabs and choose from Compact, Bottom or Top.
Here’s a full-screen comparison of each mode, as of iOS 26 beta 1:
Interestingly, while the iPhone now has three tab layout options, Apple appears to have removed the Compact option from Safari on macOS 26 and iPadOS 26. It’s unclear if this is a permanent change or whether it will return later in the beta cycle.