Apple is testing AI tab grouping for Safari in iOS 27
Apple is planning to bring automatic tab organization to Safari, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The feature, called Organize Tabs, will sort open tabs by topic or content type and is currently in testing for iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27. Apple is expected to show it off at WWDC 2026, which opens on June 8.
AI under the hood, quietly
Organize Tabs will use AI to do the sorting, but Apple isn't planning to market it as part of Apple Intelligence — the branded AI suite it introduced with iOS 18. Users will also have the option to group tabs manually rather than letting the system decide, which gives it a different feel from Google's equivalent, which leans more heavily on automatic grouping.
The feature builds on Tab Groups, a manual tab-organization tool Apple added to Safari 15 back in 2021. That earlier system let you create named groups yourself; Organize Tabs would do that work for you.
Playing catch-up with Chrome
Google launched a comparable feature — Organize Similar Tabs — in January 2024, part of a wider push to bake generative AI into Chrome. Apple's version, if it lands with iOS 27 later this year, would arrive roughly 17 months later.
That gap is worth noting. Apple has moved cautiously on consumer-facing AI features, often prioritizing on-device processing and privacy over speed to market. Whether Organize Tabs processes tab data locally or in the cloud hasn't been confirmed — a detail that will matter to privacy-conscious users on both sides of the Atlantic.
What to expect at WWDC
WWDC 2026 kicks off June 8, where Apple traditionally unveils new versions of iOS, macOS, and iPadOS. Organize Tabs is expected to be among the software announcements, though nothing is official yet — Gurman's report via Bloomberg describes it as a feature in testing, not a confirmed announcement.
If Apple does confirm the feature, a public release would likely follow in the autumn alongside the iOS 27 rollout — the same window as a new iPhone launch.
