How to Remove Colors in Tab Bar in Safari iPhone/iPad?

Whenever the Cupertino giants release a new iOS or iPadOS, there’s always a decent level of hype surrounding the new goodies they have to offer. And things were the same this time around as well.

Well, it is safe to say that Apple managed to live up to the hype to a large extent. However, a few tweaks and additions in the Safari browser became the talk of the town, but not for all the right reasons.

First off, its decision to shift the Safari browser’s address bar to the bottom proved to be a significant drawback from the usability perspective. The introduction of the Website Tinting feature (or color tab bar) only made the matter worse.

This feature forces Safari to adapt to the website’s color that you are currently browsing for the unaware. For example, if red is the primary color on a site, then the browser’s navigation buttons, tabs, and bookmarks would also adhere to this red color scheme.

The ideology behind this might be to give a more immersive user experience. However, not many users seem to be in sync with this thinking.

It proves to be a cause for significant distraction while interacting with the browser for a few users. Likewise, some even said these colors get so immersed that it is difficult to differentiate the browser’s component from the status bar.

Talking about which, some have also pointed out that a website’s color scheme shouldn’t have a say in determining the OS’s status bar colors in the first place.

So if you also echo these thoughts and wish to disable the color in Tab Bar in Safari 15 on your iPhone/iPad, then this guide is here to help you out. Follow along for the instructions.

Color Tab Bar in Safari iPhone/iPad

The Website Tinting feature is enabled by default in the Safari browser. However, after listening to the user’s feedback in the beta builds, Apple did add an option to allow/disable the tint, and we couldn’t be more grateful to them for the same!

Here are the steps to disable the tab bar color in Safari iPhone/iPad:

1. Launch the Settings menu on your device.
2. Select Safari from the Settings menu list.
   
3. Scroll down to the Tabs section, and enable Allow Website Tinting toggle in iPhone.
   
4. In iPad – scroll down to the Accessibility section, and enable Show Color in Tab Bar toggle.
   

That’s it; the feature color in the tab bar or website tinting is disabled, and you will see a standard tab or address bar.

However, if you wish to re-enable it at any point in time, then turn on the toggle next to Allow Website Tinting on iPhone; and Show Color in Tab Bar on the iPad

Bottom Line: Safari Tab Website Tinting

We round off the guide on how you could enable and disable the color in the tab bar in Safari on iPhone/iPad.

While this feature didn’t gather much positive reception, it’s great to see that the tech giants have given the complete user control over this functionality, rather than simply forcing it onto its userbase (which is now sadly becoming the new normal).

I like the feature since it helps me differentiate between the tabs based on a color scheme and also helps in providing the contrast look to the tab.

What are your views about this new Website Tinting feature in iOS/iPadOS? Are you willing to keep it enabled, or is it proving to be a significant roadblock on the usability front?