Web developers or designers must have felt the pinch of cross-browser issues at some point in time.
Due to the fact that Emulate Safari is only available for Apple devices, it can be challenging to test if you do not own an Apple device, such as a Mac. Nevertheless, it is possible to mimic Safari on other browsers and on the various operating systems using the following methods.
Using Chrome Developer Tools
When it comes to emulating Safari, Google Chrome is among the browsers that have a discovery tool that helps you emulate different browsers.
Here's how you can use it:
- Launch Chrome and go to the website you would like to check for responsiveness.
- Just go to the page for which you need to extract data and then right-click on an empty space, and you will see the option 'Inspect'. When you click that, you will get a split screen of the webpage and the code.
- In the Developer Tools window, look at the upper right corner of the panel; there should be three horizontal dots.
- To get there, locate ‘More Tools’ at the bottom of the page and follow it to ‘Network Conditions’.
- In the ‘User Agent’ options, clear out the option that says “Use browser default.”
- Choose a Safari user agent string from the drop-down list.
This method alters the user agent, and you should know that this is essential when testing your website in relation to Safari-specific aspects. Although, do note that this is not the perfect replica of Safari’s rendering engine for nitpicking browsers.
Browser Extensions
If you want to specifically mimic Safari as well as other browsers, there are several browser extensions that could be useful to you. One popular option is "User-Agent Switcher for Chrome." Here's how to use it:
- To do that, proceed to the Chrome Web Store and install a particular extension.
- Go to the browser, and you will see the extension icon on the toolbar.
- Choose Safari among the list of browsers that are available in the drop-down list.
- Go to the browser’s top and click on the refresh button to get a new look at the webpage in Safari.
Extensions that are similar are available for Firefox and other web browsers. Despite these conveniences, the last three primarily change the user agent and do not mimic Safari rendering agents.
Online Browser Testing Tools
However, for optimal emulation of Safari, one can use online browser testing services. For these services, you get virtual machines or cloud-based browsers that can show your website as it will appear in actual Safari.
Some popular options include:
- BrowserStack: Has actual device testing for different releases of Safari for Mac and iOS.
- LambdaTest: It gives a direct link to various versions of Safari on the PC and mobile interfaces.
- Sauce Labs: Enables you to launch your website on Safari of different versions and Apple devices.
These tools are usually equipped with other features, such as a live debugger, screenshots, and video clips of the testing session.
Conclusion
Testing how Safari performs on other browsers like Chrome emulator and OSs is important, as it must be compatible with all of them. Thus, no single method offers an ideal solution to the problem, but using all the mentioned methods can enhance your proficiency in testing and improving for Safari users. In this blog, the methods discussed are all geared towards developing websites, and all the techniques vary from one to another based on the tool used, which is more of a web developer tool, which is very essential when developing websites.
