How to Open Safari Tabs from iPhone to Mac?

Did you ever encounter this situation? You are reading an interesting webpage in Safari on your MacBook and suddenly realize it’s time to move back to office or home. Or reading a webpage on iPhone and realize it’s time to get back to your Mac for some work. This happens frequently to all of us regardless of whether we are traveling or managing work in the same place. In this article, we will explain how you can open Safari tabs from iPhone to Mac and vice versa and continue the reading without interruption.

1. Using Apple’s Handoff Continuity Feature

One of the advantages of Apple is the continuity features while using multiple devices. You can easily access the Safari browser tabs opened on iPhone from your Mac using Handoff Continuity feature. However, it needs the following preconditions:

• You have logged in to the same iCloud account on all the devices.
• Connect all the devices in the same network.
• Switched on Bluetooth on all the devices and have the devices in reachable distance.

This is generally the case that most of us work with iPhone and Mac keeping them connected on the same network. When you open Safari tab on one device, you can simply pick up the same tab from another device and continue the reading.

1.1. Enabling Handoff in iPhone and Mac

Follow the below instructions to enable Handoff in iPhone:

• Tap on “Settings” app and go to “General” section.
• Navigate to “AirPlay & Handoff” section.

• Turn on “Handoff” option to enable Safari tabs sharing.

On you Mac, go to “Apple menu > System Preferences” section. If you are using macOS Ventura or later, go to “General > AirDrop & Handoff” section and enable “Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices” option. If you are using older macOS version (12 or earlier), go to “Apple menu > System Preferences > General” section. You will see the option “Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices” at the bottom and enable it.

1.2. Open Safari Tabs from iPhone to Mac

Follow the below instructions to access the iPhone Safari tabs on your Mac.

• First, launch Safari app on your iPhone and open any website.
• Now, check the “Dock” on your Mac.
• You should see a Safari app on the left corner of the “Dock”.

• Tap on the Safari icon to open the tabs from iPhone Safari on Mac.
• Remember, this is a separate icon that appears only when you allow Safari to use iCloud on your iPhone. You can still see the Mac Safari app on the “Dock”. However, after loading webpages from iPhone, you can continue to use the same Safari app to open other webpages on Mac.

1.3. Open Safari Tabs from Mac to iPhone

Swipe up and hold to open “App Switcher” (on older phones with home button, double tap home button). You will see a small box at the bottom showing the active tab from Safari on Mac. Tap on that to open the page from Mac in Safari iPhone.

This works even for sharing pages from Google Chrome Mac. Though iPhone will show “Safari – From MacBook Pro”, the tab will from Chrome. This happens when you use Chrome as your default browser Mac. If you have enabled Siri suggestions, you can find the active tabs from Chrome Mac when opening Safari in iPhone under “Siri Suggestions” section.

2. Using AirDrop for Tab Transfer

Using AirDrop is another option to share Safari browser tabs across iPhone and Mac. When you are in Safari browser on Mac or iPhone, tap on the “Share” button and choose “AirDrop” option.

You will see your devices connected to the same iCloud account. Tap on your device name to instantly share the tab. This will open the webpage in Safari on the received device.

3. Using iCloud Tabs with Safari Sync

Using iCloud is the best option to share and keep the tabs updated on all your Apple devices. If you want to share the browsing history across all your devices, then you need to enable iCloud sync in both iPhone and Mac settings. Follow the below instructions on iPhone:

• Tap on “Settings” app on your iPhone and touch your name to go to Apple ID settings.
• Touch “iCloud > Show All” and then turn on Safari under “Apps using iCloud” section.

To enable iCloud sync for Safari on Mac, go to “Apple menu > System Preferences” section and click “Apple ID” option. On the next screen, go to “iCloud” section and enable “Safari” option.

3.1. Viewing iCloud Tabs

The latest Safari app in iOS uses Start page and has an option to show the iCloud synced tabs in the home page. As you can see in the below picture, the tab from Mac is shown on Safari iPhone under “From MacBook Pro” section. If you are not seeing the section, scroll down to the bottom and tap on “Edit” button.

This will show you a list of items and make sure to enable “iCloud Tabs” option. You can also disable other sections to remove the clutter on the Start page.

If you are using older iOS version, tap on the open new tab button that shows on the bottom right corner.

This will show all the open tabs you are currently having on Safari. Swipe the window a little up from bottom to top. Now you will see all tabs opened on Safari browser from your Mac. Touch any of the title to open the same webpage on your iPhone.

On Mac, you can click on the “Show tab overview” icon showing on top right corner in Safari. You can find the list of iCloud tabs below the current open tabs.