Safari Technology Preview lets you check out the cool, new functionality that will be available in forthcoming releases. It provides developers with the best way to view upcoming web technologies in macOS and iOS (including visual effects, the latest layout technologies and even developer tools) so they can provide the best possible experience across all Apple devices and platforms.
Today, business is conducted in moments—And if your website “hiccups” or is slow, you run the risk of losing customers. (Or worse yet, prompting them to move on to a competitor.) That’s why it is so important to ensure your website is forward-and-backward compatible with all browsers and display sizes.
Developers are constantly looking for the latest and greatest ways to leverage the power of web browsers to create a pleasing user experience. The early testing platforms now available on all major web browsers provide a much-needed way to ensure consistency of your online message.
While Google and Mozilla offer developers beta and alpha versions of their popular web browsers, Apple is relatively new to the party. They just started offering their Safari Technology Preview in early 2016.
The Importance of Cross-Browser Testing
Cross-browser testing allows you to view updates within various platforms. With it, you can ensure your application performs or operates as expected. This level of testing increases in importance when you consider that code updates are pushed to web browsers on a regular basis. If you’re not planning ahead, and ensuring your site or app performs on new releases, it could crash or behave in an unexpected fashion. Your web designers must regularly review alpha and beta releases of web browsers before your site goes live.
How Browsers Affect Website Performance
The importance of browser testing can’t be overstated. Many business owners don’t realize how detrimental a mismatch between their website codes and a browser can be. Website performance is severely affected by browsers whose primary job is to interpret the code and display it consistently.
Browsers have a list of supported elements that can vary by browser type and release number. A simple example is how design elements such as rounded corners, transparent images and shading are interpreted differently depending on whether you’re viewing them in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari.
Additionally, some pages load more quickly in a particular browser depending on choices made by website designers. Each time a new browser version is released, there’s a potential for a seemingly-simple element to cause significant lag time on your website.
Professional website designers understand how various browsers interpret design elements and can make selections when creating a website to ensure consistency regardless of which web browser is used.
More About Safari Technology Preview
Safari Technology Preview reveals how JavaScript, CSS and HTML render across websites, and the most recent version of Safari’s web-rendering engine called WebKit. There are some powerful development tools included with this software, such as the Bug Reporter that allows developers to report problems and enhancement requests directly to Apple, and the Responsive Design Mode that provides a comprehensive view of your website properties through a variety of viewport sizes.
Even better, this platform can run alongside current installations of Safari, so developers can compare how changes will appear in future releases.
It can be challenging for business users and developers to maintain a broad spectrum of web browsers, and continually test their sites for compatibility and speed-of-content delivery. At , we stay up to date on all the latest browsers to ensure that your website always loads quickly and delivers a consistent user experience. Contact us at or via email to learn how we use cutting-edge tools to drive website engagement and sales.
Safari Technology Preview updates are released every few weeks, and can be downloaded directly from the Mac Apple Store:
Safari Technology Preview for macOS Sierra Requires macOS 10.12.5 or later.