
- #SAFARI TECHNOLOGY PREVIEW BIG SUR UPDATE#
- #SAFARI TECHNOLOGY PREVIEW BIG SUR ANDROID#
- #SAFARI TECHNOLOGY PREVIEW BIG SUR CODE#
#SAFARI TECHNOLOGY PREVIEW BIG SUR UPDATE#
However, it no longer works with macOS Big Sur.Īnyone who has downloaded the browser can get the Safari Technology Preview update through the Software Update mechanism in System Settings. The current Safari Technical Preview is version 16.4, which is compatible with devices running macOS 13 Ventura and macOS 12 Monterey. This update enables shared tab groups and synchronization of tab groups, site settings and Web extensions, and is available for testing on Safari Technology Preview 162 or later running macOS Ventura 13.2 or later, or macOS Monterey with Safari 16.2.

The Safari Technology Preview version 162 includes bug fixes and performance improvements for Web Inspector, CSS, Scrolling, Gamepad API, Media, Web API, and Accessibility.
#SAFARI TECHNOLOGY PREVIEW BIG SUR ANDROID#
Whatever voice control Safari adds, it will still be behind Google, which has been introducing Google Assistant as a way to do searches by voice on Android devices.The current Safari Technology Preview release is built on the Safari 16 update and includes support for features in macOS 13 Ventura, such as live text, passkeys, Web extension improvements, and more.
#SAFARI TECHNOLOGY PREVIEW BIG SUR CODE#
Now, the code will be open-source, but Mozilla won’t be supporting it. The extension used the Google Cloud Speech Service, routing voice commands through Google’s servers. Like Voice Fill, it managed browser tabs and media playback on videos, including YouTube. It could answer questions via a search engine and open specific web pages if it understood the name of the website. The extension operated like a voice assistant within the browser awakened by clicking on a microphone icon. Mozilla SilenceĪpple’s test of speech recognition for Safari and the possible inclusion of Mozilla’s Web Speech API comes just as Mozilla has officially set the end date for Firefox Voice the voice control browser extension it has been beta testing for a year.

That may not come about until the next big update with iOS 15. If Safari does make a move to adding more voice options, it would presumably give that access to Siri, making the voice assistant more useful for web browsing, especially on mobile devices. Safari does not yet support it in either desktop or mobile forms. Web Speech is already supported by Google Chrome on Android and desktop, as well as Microsoft Edge and Samsung’s browser. The Web Speech API uses speech recognition to detect and integrate the voice data, while its speech synthesis aspect handles text-to-speech, which lets programs read text on websites and talk back to the user. The technical update suggests Safari is laying the groundwork to supporting the Web Speech API created by Mozilla, which allows web apps to process voice data and make voice controls feasible. The update also puts the prefix ‘webkit’ in front of SpeechRecognition and changes speech recognition in Safari to adjust when it responds, turning it off in instances when a page’s audio capture is muted or if the page becomes invisible.

It’s a crucial step toward adding voice controls and interactions for any voice assistant.

The SpeechRecognition interface is what allows the browser to discern someone speaking from other audio, understand what is being said, and formulate a response. At the top of the list is setting SpeechRecognition on by default. The release notes for the Safari tech preview fit the speech recognition updates among changes in scrolling, media, and other facets of the browser. The update is part of the Safari Technology Preview Release 119. Apple’s Safari browser is testing making speech recognition a default, possibly as a prelude to supporting the popular Web Speech API.
