ActiveTab comes to iPad to fix Safari's tabs there, too

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Activetab On Ipad
Activetab On Ipad (Image credit: Oliver Haslam / iMore)

What you need to know

  • ActiveTab has come to iPad, making it easier to see which tab is active in the new Safari.
  • The Safari extension is already popular on the Mac.

Less than a week ago I told you about ActiveTab, a new Safari extension that made it easier to tell which tab was active despite the new Safari interface. Now that same extension has made its way to iPad — and it's here to fix Safari's tabs there, too.

The issue with iPadOS 15's Safari is similar to that on the Mac — discerning which tab is active isn't as easy as it should be. ActiveTab fixes that by putting a strip of color beneath the tab that's currently live. It's a simple fix, but it's an effective one. And just like on the Mac, people can customize the color of the strip as well as how thick it is, too.

Whether Apple will make the new Safari tabs easier to differentiate in the future, nobody knows. But for a couple of dollars, you can fix the problem right here and right now — a bargain, no doubt. And all you need to do is grab an app from the App Store!

Anyone who wants to fix their Safari tabs can download Active Tab from the App Store for $1.99 right now. It's worth every penny. If you still want greater differentiation from your tabs, be sure to disable the "Show color in tab bar" Safari option, too.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.