Safari's extremely slow pace in adopting popular features and fixing showstopping bugs, and refusal to engage with contentious API proposals, is harming the web
Features not implemented are not dangerous —'Safari is the next IE' is well supported by many bugs —Ignoring Chrome proposals without engaging or alternative offers, makes the problem worse https://httptoolkit.tech/... Nadim Kobeissi / @kaepora : “Safari isn't protecting the web, it's killing it” — really well-written critique of Safari's development, likening it to “the new Internet Explorer”: https://httptoolkit.tech/... Zach Leatherman / @zachleat : We can argue about individual features but the larger point is that the web has historically been very resilient to languish like this when users have *real* alternative web browser choices. If iOS can run Unity or Unreal Engine—it can run alternative browser rendering engines. https://twitter.com/... Quinn Nelson / @snazzyq : I've complained about the iOS 15 beta of Safari—sorry, I still don't like it for a number of reasons—but in general, Safari is one of the best apps on macOS and iOS and is by far my favorite browser. I'm very grateful it isn't Chromium. If you haven't used it in a while, try it. Dave Rupert / @davatron5000 : 📝 In response to an open question by @jensimmons, I blogged some thoughts about “one-offs” and my troubles with supporting Safari. https://daverupert.com/... @migueldeicaza : @ralph_squillace @matvelloso Some of us have day jobs chaining the block to the metaverse and have no time for these shenanigans. That said, Apple is always right -by definition- so whatever that blog says, is just an attempt at sophistry and I will have none of it. Alex Russell / @slightlylate : Via @feross, it appears the Apple fanboys are so thin skinned they can't accept reasoned argument and instead *are flagging posts to keep inconvenient arguments out* Truly heroic. (the article is here: https://httptoolkit.tech/... ) https://twitter.com/... Dion Almaer / @dalmaer : “It's exceedingly rare now to see a web feature primarily driven by Apple. Something has changed.” https://httptoolkit.tech/... Jer Warren / @nyquildotorg : “It's not accurate to describe Safari's approach as protecting the web, and right now it looks more likely that it is making the web worse for everybody.” The list of “show-stopping” bugs in here contains terrifying issues I didn't even know about. https://httptoolkit.tech/... Alex Russell / @slightlylate : Had thought the from a few months back was exhaustive[1], but @pimterry spotted a few more missing Safari features beyond the 3yr window including print events, orientation events, and offset-path. I regret the oversight. [1]: https://infrequently.org/... https://twitter.com/... Louis Gray / @louisgray : “Ignoring standards like this does not help the web evolve more cautiously - once these features have been stable for years in every other browser they can't be changed anyway.” Safari isn't protecting the web, it's killing it. https://httptoolkit.tech/... /by @pimterry Stephen Shankland / @stshank : More highly detailed complaints from yesterday that Apple is really harming the web: https://httptoolkit.tech/... Stephen Shankland / @stshank : Reading that blog post a day after @igalia mentioned its work fixing WebKit/Safari from the outside: “Igalia is proud to have helped contribute to Compat2021 by closing many of the compatibility gaps in WebKit.” https://www.igalia.com/... Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : Safari is the new Internet Explorer but worse. With IE, when Microsoft thought it was no longer strategic to invest in the browser, others like Chrome & Firefox could take over. It's literally technically impossible to compete with Safari on iOS. 😬 https://httptoolkit.tech/... Stephen Shankland / @stshank : “If I could ask for anything, it'd be that Apple loosen the purse strings and let Webkit be that warehouse for web innovation that it was a decade ago.” https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This critique lands mid-arc: Apple had already framed its stalling as principle, citing fingerprinting risks to justify declining to implement 16 new Web APIs and deleting local storage like IndexedDB after seven days as part of the same privacy push. The HTTP Toolkit piece flips the framing — arguing that non-implementation plus silence on contentious proposals is itself a form of gatekeeping.
First-order effects
- Web developers building for iOS have no engine choice — Apple's restrictions make Safari the only runtime on iPhone — so unimplemented features and showstopping bugs become hard ceilings on what any web app can do on iOS.
- Chrome-originated proposals stall not on technical merit but because Safari neither implements nor counters them with alternatives, leaving standards bodies without a working interoperability path.
Second-order effects
- Developers already optimizing for Chrome-shipped standards — a divergence noted back in 2018 — gain further reason to treat Safari as a legacy target, deepening de facto Chrome-first web development.
- Igalia's Compat2021-style gap-closing shows the ecosystem routing around Apple's pace, but the deeper pressure arrives from regulators: the EU move to allow default third-party browsers and alternative web engines in iOS 17.4 attacks the very monopoly that makes Safari's lag unavoidable.
Third-order effects
- If forced engine competition takes hold outside the US, Safari loses the captive-audience dynamic that has let it set its own adoption cadence, shifting web platform power from unilateral gatekeeping toward negotiated interoperability.
- The counter-risk is structural too: with one engine shipping most features first, prolonged Safari disengagement accelerates consolidation around Chromium — the 'new Internet Explorer' label cutting both ways, since IE's sin was also freezing the platform while rivals moved.
The trend: Browser platform control is migrating from engine-level gatekeeping toward regulation-forced interoperability, with Safari's refusal to engage accelerating both the regulatory case and Chromium's gravitational pull.