This story is part of our complete Apple WWDC coverage Apple has announced a round of new features for Safari at WWDC 2024, and there’s a lot of AI involved. We knew it was going to happen eventually — Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge have been trialing and launching new AI features for a while already.
First things first, the new Safari is speedy. On macOS, it’s “the world’s fastest browser,” so we can expect to get some snappy responses when we’re searching the web. Apple also claims that Safari can stream video for four hours longer than Google Chrome can manage before depleting your battery. Recommended Videos We’ll be able to find important information quicker too with the new Highlights feature. It uses machine learning to identify important snippets of information on the page you’re looking at and display them for you to see easily. This includes info like directions and phone numbers — the kind of stuff you want to know quickly, without having to find it.
The Reader feature is getting an update too, it now uses AI to generate a table of contents and a summary to help you navigate and consume content more efficiently. There’s also a new Viewer mode that detects videos and automatically puts them front and center — or in Picture in Picture mode — depending on what suits you.