Safari is the default browser on all Apple devices. It was first introduced in 2003, and since then it has become an essential app on our devices. Apple engineers work every day to make it better. In fact, today they have confirmed that in the last six months they have made it 60% faster.
A month ago, Mozilla, Google and Apple launched a tool called Speedometer 3 browser benchmark. Its main function is to measure the performance of major web browsers like Safari. That way, users and developers can easily compare them. Apple wants to excel at this, and is actively working on it. An Apple representative explains that:
“With all these optimizations and dozens more, we were able to improve the overall Speedometer 3.0 score by ~60% between Safari 17.0 and Safari 17.4. Even though individual progressions were often less than 1%, over time, they all stacked up together to make a big difference.
Because some of these optimizations also benefited Speedometer 2.1, Safari 17.4 is also ~13% faster than Safari 17.0 on Speedometer 2.1. We’re thrilled to deliver these performance improvements to our users allowing web developers to build websites and web apps that are more responsive and snappier than ever.”
It’s clear that Apple is taking Safari very seriously. And if we combine this with the rumored AI assistant for Safari in iOS 18, it looks promising. Furthermore we’ll only have to wait two months until Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 10. The company could announce even more new features there.