Profile support on iOS and iPadOS?
+1 on profiles for iOS/iPadOS. This is a big privacy differentiator. Apart from Safari's support of it in 17, iCab Mobile is the only other implementation I am aware of (called Accounts). Happy to post walk-through of iCab's profile management if needed.
Here are the steps to set up in iCab: settings, Accounts, Create New, name, set settings.
For each account there are separate settings for appearance, cookies/ad block, sync, user agent, bookmarks, history, etc.
You switch between accounts with a menu bar button (customizable to show/hide).
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I wasn't aware of a multi-profile ios browser until this, so thank you. Since I've just started looking into both icab ios and macos, I can't find where the profiles/accounts are on icab macos. Are they even a feature on mac? If so, where are they? Btw, I am aware of the firefox sync, which seems great but i havent tested yet.
Also @Vlad , in my opinion, ios 17's multi-profile safari might be a better point of reference for an orion implementation. Because unlike icab, orion macos resembles safari macos more. Anything is better than nothing, but I also don't see icab mobile having tab groups WITHIN profiles. ios 17 safari seems to have that, but it's more of a luxury feature (an example of a feature where I would feel obligated to continue being a orion+ subscriber for a longer term). I'm not well-versed with development or orion dev, so tab groups within profiles might take quite awhile anyways (if even done at all with how advanced it could be).
Another vote for profile support on iOS here too please. I use them to separate home/work/project spaces.
As someone who also likes to use profiles to make a split between personal/work/home/gaming etc. and use tab groups within, I would like to give some feedback based on my experience within Safari.
- I have many tab groups within each profile and the UI doesn’t feel tailored for this. Also applies to current Orion (for iOS). I believe moving special “interaction” buttons up and leaving the tab group list as the last element would be an upgrade in this case.
- Managing profiles is clunky: I didn’t know you could create profiles on iOS because it was hidden under system settings (while creating a tab group thankfully isn’t)
- Moving tabs between profiles, while not common on a day to day usage, is very much needed while migrating to profiles and it seems like the safari ux team slept on this one. Sure drag n drop after interacting with the ui a bunch of times may sound fun on an iPad but not so much on an iPhone
- having sessions tied to profiles specifically may not make sense for everyone. Depending on what your work requirements it may be the case that one session per tab group makes more sense, or no session splitting at all
- making the private tab group accessible by one swipe may not have been their brightest idea when coming up with the profiles ui
Now for the offtopic: as a tab group maniac, sometimes I wonder if (collapsing) tab group folders would enhance the UX just like they do for bookmarks.
Looking into what makes me have so many tab groups within the work profile is that it mostly splits over 3 big areas where sometimes I need to do research for a specific task which leads me to have a bunch of tab groups named like “app - redux saga” or “cloud - phoenix” so I also need to remember to sort them close to each other.
The thing is, I do make use of bookmarks so no need to remind me about that, when I’m done I do “archive” those tab groups as bookmarks for reference, however I do need to practice some context switching daily and this workflow has been ok for me.
As an Orion user on both macOS and iOS I would like both of my profiles (Work and Home) to sync to my mobile device, so that I can use the tabs from each profile when I'm on my phone.
I really value having direct access to the Orion team in these forums. But Vlad - I'd suggest asking us about our problems and what we're trying to accomplish. Don't ask us for solutions. Usually we don't know!
Just bringing this back from the dead, as iOS 18 added profile support on safari, and currently as someone who has lots of different tab groups in profiles it’s the one thing keeping me on Safari on iOS and MacOS.
Screen cap attached!
Thanks!
I just switch over to Orion from Safari and I love it. But I definitely miss the shared profile feature between macOS and iOS, especially since I use an iPad as my primary mobile device.