After waiting long enough, I decided to build one myself. A little preview of Tap Tab - https://taptab.manibatra.xyz. The web extension APIs for managing tabs are pretty locked down in Safari, but I have already found a lot of value in using the extension. Some of the features that I find very useful(in the middle of building a few of these) :
- Driven by keyboard shortcuts. I can see the tabs I have open at a glance and switch between them.
- Fuzzy search to quickly filter down to the tab you want.
- Quick switching between two tabs.
- Ability to pin, mute, and close the tab right from the extension.
Say hello, and tell me what features you would like the extension to have!! You can follow the updates on Twitter- https://twitter.com/ManiBatra23.
- I can filter tabs down but can't select them without my hands leaving the keyboard.
- I can't switch between two tabs really fast. My workflow often involves alternating between two tabs.
- Tab overview does not have multi-window support which is important to me as I am often working on multiple monitors with multiple windows open.
- I can't quit, pin, mute a bunch of tabs using the Tab Overview with just keyboard shortcuts.
Basically Tab Overview isn't for "Lots of Tabs" users.
I frequently find myself jumping between two tabs (for example filling a form with details from another page) and no browser I know of makes it easy.
- Open the extension : Shift + Cmd + A
- Press Enter
I will stick with that for the first cut as I want it released soon but this feature is definitely on the top of my list once this extension is released.
Honestly, I'm not even aware of the Chrome tab-switching you mentioned, I use the same `SHFT + ⌘ + [ ]` to go between tabs.
I'm more of staying with as little and minimal extensions, plugins, menubar apps, as possible. And learn to use the native commands/shortcuts as possible. Perhaps that is one of the reason.
The project does look nice. Best of luck and have fun while building it.
I am with you. I was using Tab Overview for a long time before I used Shift + Cmd + A on Chrome. Really made switching tabs a breeze! I wish I didn't have to build this and Safari provided a better native method to be honest :)
I like it so much that I've actually been petitioning Apple to add it as an option in System Settings, but like so many things, they seem to think they got Trackpad Gestures right the first time and haven't added anything to it since debut.
The more I see comments like yours the more it reaffirms my faith that "pro" users want customisation. If Apple opens up the OS a little bit it will have arguably the best hardware and a great OS. But I won't hold my breath.
What more could you want? I like that apps can extend the usability of macOS in ways that Apple wouldn’t do themselves. And if I don’t like a specific app, I can just remove it.
Genuinely curious would opening the OS would do.
My primary (but not only) use case is researching something and opening every relevant-seeming result in a new tab, afterwards closing the ones that seem the least relevant and keeping the still-open ones around for reference. Then when I'm doing something else (in which the open tabs aren't immediately relevant anymore, but may become so at any time), I can collapse the tree and focus on whatever else I'm doing. Should I then decide that sub-tree isn't relevant anymore, I can close all of the contained tabs at once.
I can't really work with a browser that doesn't have this now. It's so convenient and natural.
Vimium calls their flavor the "vomnibar", and you can search in open tabs, history and bookmarks. The bar is my most used feature next to navigating on pages, opening links and managing tabs (Go to previous tab, pinning, muting, closing, duplicating). It might be a nice extension to take a look at for even more inspiration!
For people wanting tab switching like this on Chrome or FF, I'd say give Vimium a shot. Even if you're not into Vim-like key bindings, knowing Vim is definitely not a requirement to getting value out of it. It allows me to be completely keyboard driven.
There is also https://github.com/televator-apps/vimari the Safari port thought it is not full featured as vimium.
I love the same feature in Chrome so I am with you.
Arc appears to take this to the next level and makes all tabs, spaces, windows, notes, easels, web search, and commands available to the command palette shortcut that conventionally opens a new tab elsewhere, Ctrl-T/Cmd-T. I think this is definitely the next step in browser UI, but this extension is probably how far Safari will let you go until they implement it themselves.
Yea Arc does look really cool doesn't it. And the fact that it wraps the Chromium engine in Swift would make it feel really native on Mac. Something which bugs me about Chrome, Firefox, etc
Have you looked at this app for inspiration? I'm not affiliated, just a happy customer.
Congrats on shipping
Same here! I really wish Safari used Ctrl-Tab to toggle since CMD-Shift-[,] already does prior/next in order.
The plan to release it to iPad is after I have released the first cut.
