Safari, Mail, and Messages
Safari has new customisation and privacy features.
Safari and Messages have had big updates in Big Sur, and much of the focus is on privacy. Safari’s new Privacy Report details all the cross-site trackers it’s blocked over the last 30 days and displays the privacy practices for websites you visit. You can even add the Privacy Report to your newly customisable start page.
Safari now also warns you if any of your saved passwords have been involved in a data breach and helps you change them. It’s faster and more power efficient and displays favicons on open tabs, making it easier to identify them. Mail didn’t get a big update this time around, but it did benefit from the OS-wide interface enhancements like full-height sidebars and new icons.
1 Import data from Chrome or Firefox
You can now import passwords, bookmarks, and history directly from Chrome or Firefox. Click on the File menu in Safari and choose “Import from.” Choose either Chrome or Firefox. Select the items that you want to import and then click Import.
2 Check password security
Click on the Safari menu and choose Preferences. Select the Passwords tab and authenticate. Look for entries with a yellow triangle next to them – that indicates there is an issue with the password. Select an entry that has a yellow triangle and press Details at the bottom of the window. Read the advice in the window that opens.
3 Customise your start page
Open a new tab in Safari. Click the settings icon at the bottom-right of the page. Check the box next to the elements you want to include. Scroll across the images at the bottom and click on one to select it, or click “+” and navigate to an image on your Mac you want to use and select it.
4 Translate a web page
Navigate to the web page you want to translate. Look for the speech bubbles icon to the right of the address bar. Click on it and choose “Translate to English” or Preferred Languages.
5 Preview a tab
You can now preview the contents of a tab without opening it. Just hover over the tab with the mouse pointer and a thumbnail preview will appear.
6 Unsubscribe from a mailing list in Mail
Select a message in your inbox that comes from the list you want to unsubscribe from. Look under the header for a message that says “This message is from a mailing list.” To the right of that, click Unsubscribe.
7 Check a sender’s email address
Phishing emails often look genuine because the message header shows what looks like a legitimate name and conceals the email address. To see a sender’s email address, hover over the sender and then click on the drop-down arrow that appears.
8 Organise messages in Smart Mailboxes
Click on the Mailbox menu and choose New Smart Mailbox. Name it and select items from the menus to create the first condition for putting a message in the mailbox. To add more conditions, click “+” and specify the next condition. Pick “all” or “any” to set whether all or only one of the conditions has to be met for a message to be filed here.