macOS High Sierra is an incremental upgrade, at best. The climb from Sierra to High Sierra is a scenic one but it brings but a handful of little features to this update. High Sierra is more about the behind-the-scenes changes and stability improvements (which might be reason enough to upgrade for some).
A major part of High Sierra’s appeal are the improvements made to Safari. Not only is Safari 11 much faster when it comes to Javascript performance, it also brings useful features like cross-site tracking prevention, autoplay video blocking and Auto Reader mode.
You might be interested in using these features (especially if Safari is your default browser. But you might not want to upgrade to High Sierra just yet. There’s a way to get all these features and run Safari 11 on macOS Sierra. Here’s how.
Read more: macOS High Sierra Features: All the New and Hidden Features
How to Run Safari 11 on macOS Sierra
While new Safari features come out with new major OS release, Safari runs on its own different development cycle. Which means that as long as you’re running the latest version of macOS Sierra, you can upgrade to the latest version of Safari.
Step 1: Open the App Store, go to the Updates section and upgrade your Mac to the latest version of macOS Sierra (10.12.6 at the time of writing).
Step 2: Reboot your Mac to install the Sierra update.
Step 3: Now, again, go to the App Store and visit the Updates tab. Here you’ll find an update for Safari.
Step 4: Click on Install button next to the Safari 11 section. The app will be downloaded and installed.
Now just launch Safari again and you’ll have access to all the new features right there.
New Safari Features You Should Explore
Now that you’re running Safari 11, spend some time exploring the new features.
Auto Reader: To turn on Auto Reader mode for the website you’re visiting, right-click on the Reader button and select Use Reader Automatically on “www.example.com.
Stop Autoplay Videos: When you’re on the website, right-click on the URL bar and select Settings for This Website. From the drop-down, spot the Auto-Play section and click on the options next to it. Then select Never Auto-Play.
What do you think of the new Safari features? How long will you hold out before upgrading to High Sierra? Share with us in the comments below.
