Safari 14.1 for macOS Big Sur, iPadOS 14.5, and iOS 14.5 brings new WebKit features, APIs, and more for web developers. The full announcement can be read here but here are a few that may be more noticeable for end users.
Safari 14.1 Features
- Date & Time Inputs for Mac – In HTML, the date, time, datetime-local attributes for the input element prompt the browser to create date and/or time controls — an interface that’s designed to let the user easily enter a time or a date, usually with a calendar.
- Web Speech API – Now, Safari supports speech recognition powered by the same speech engine as Siri. That means web developers can enjoy the benefits of high-quality transcription for over 50 languages and dialects.
- WebM Support – WebKit added improved support for WebM media. Initial support began in Safari 12.1 with support for VP8 in WebM in the context of WebRTC only. With Safari 14, WebKit added support for WebM via MSE. Now, WebKit supports WebM files containing VP8 or VP9 video tracks and Vorbis audio tracks.
- Private Click Measurement – This release features Private Click Measurement – a proposed web standard that enables advertisers to measure the effectiveness of click-through ad campaigns in a privacy-preserving way. This new technology is part of a larger effort to remove cross-site tracking from the web and provide privacy-preserving alternatives where needed.
These improvements are available to users running Safari on iPadOS 14.5, iOS 14.5, or Safari 14.1 on macOS Big Sur (11.3), macOS Catalina, or macOS Mojave.