Posted by Chandraveer Mathur on Nov 03, 2021 in Samsung
iOS 15 brought some substantial changes to Safari. The most prominent change was the new unified address bar at the bottom of the screen. Now, Samsung has followed suit and moved the address bar of its browser app to the bottom as well.
On the Samsung Internet Browser Beta available on the Galaxy Store (version 16.0.2.15), a new layout has been added where the address bar has been moved to the bottom of the screen for easier one-handed access. This layout can be enabled by navigating to Settings > Layout and menu > Address bar position. Here, users can choose between the classic web layout and the new layout with the unified address bar at the bottom of the screen. With the latter selected, the address bar is displayed on top of the navigation bar, tab manager, and sharing buttons.
well gee samsung, I wonder why you suddenly decided to add this option now to your browser, I just can’t fathom a guess pic.twitter.com/WTTI98OwQv
— dan seifert (@dcseifert) November 3, 2021
It is noteworthy that Chrome for Android has had this feature for years now, although it must be enabled using a hidden flag. Also, Apple allowed users to switch to the conventional Safari user interface on iOS 15 after pushback for removing the option entirely. However, the new layout with the address bar at the bottom is enabled by default.
Samsung’s timing for implementing this feature right after Apple is hilarious, given that the idea has been around for years now.
We believe the beta feature should make its way to the stable version as well. It eliminates the need to use two hands just to get to the address bar on taller smartphones. What do you think about this design change? Let us know in the comments below!
