19

I'm looking for an extensions (or built in feature?) of Safari that does the same as Multi-Containers for Firefox. I need different users/containers to separate private browsing from different works contexts.

I found this older post Multiple user accounts in Safari like in Chrome? and tried Google but not much came out of it.

Maybe someone knows a hidden gem

Wowfunhappy
  • 7,383
soupdiver
  • 291
  • Nor a real nor a complete solution, but if your intention is to separate a specific website (like Facebook), you could use a secondary browser just for Facebook. Unfortunately this doesn't happen automatically, but at least you won't have to share the same cookies. – fregante Oct 08 '20 at 03:25
  • As mentioned it's more about separating work contexts and stuff. But having 5+ secondary browser doesn't sound too good :D – soupdiver Oct 09 '20 at 07:18
  • 1
    AGREED!!! i was just introduced to the Firefox Containers extension and it's AWESOME! but i still prefer to use Safari for most of my browsing. it would be great to have that feature. – SyberKnight Nov 30 '20 at 01:00
  • @SyberKnight overall people using Firefox containers are so fond of the feature that it's most certain that Safari, Chrome and the rest will add it at some point. The only question is: when? – Stan Reduta Dec 16 '20 at 08:19

2 Answers2

1

Apple just published changes to Safari at WWDC 2021 detailing a new feature called Tab Groups. But it seems to be more like other tab grouping solutions similar to Edge Collections. It will not offer multiple user accounts and full isolation like the FireFox Containers. Apple Safari will of course, sync the tab groups across iOS 15 and macOS Monterey systems.

Safari uses the current Mac user and there is no concept of switching users in Safari. You can enable Fast User Switching on macOS and switch between user accounts entirely. That's what I do with the family iMac so each family member has their own account.

Perhaps this fall, Safari Tab Groups will be close enough to what you are looking to accomplish. Minus the user account isolation.

James Brickley
  • 2,171
  • hehe we will see... but we're not quite there yet :D – soupdiver Jun 14 '21 at 06:39
  • 1
    Not directly related. Google, Mozilla, and Apple is also working on an extension standard that will allow you to use the same extensions across the browsers. Of course we can expect that not all APIs are exposed uniformly as we know it from the browsers. – Michael Jul 28 '21 at 02:03
1

In Safari 17.0 you'll have Profiles, which do exactly this container mechanics. Just find the corresponding tab in settings and create the new one. enter image description here

Antony A
  • 11
  • wohooo it's been a long way :D – soupdiver Oct 24 '23 at 07:57
  • Profiles it is similar but not exactly what containers provide. In Firefox I can have a tab at Facebook in its container and another tab on Google in my default container. It also allows to create tabs exclusive for a list of domains. For instance, when I am in facebook and click on a twitter link, it opens a new tab on my twitter container, all cookies 100% sandboxed to each container. – Irae Carvalho Dec 28 '23 at 14:48