iOS 6: Open & Manage Up To 24 Browser Tabs in Safari for iPad

If you use a lot of tabs while browsing the web, you’ll appreciate a subtle change to Safari for iPad that came along with iOS 6.

You can now have up to 24 concurrent browser tabs open, a huge increase from the 8 tab limit in prior versions of iOS.

While that 8 tab limit still remains for Safari on iPod touch and iPhone, the larger screen on the iPad allows for the tremendous improvement for those of us who hoard web browser tabs like there’s no tomorrow.

Safari on iPad will show up to 10 tabs across the top if the device is in landscape mode, and to access the other tabs you just have to tap on the >> arrow button on the furthest right tab. That will pull down a menu to access your other tabs.

Selecting a site from the pulldown list will swap it in place of the currently active tab, it does not close it.

This is separate from iCloud tabs, which are accessed by from the little cloud icon in Safari toolbar. Speaking of iCloud tabs, because they are accessible from the iPhone and iPod touch, you can use them as a way to sort of get around the 8 tab limit, by accessing tabs stored on other iPhones, iPads, Macs, or whatever else has the same iCloud account.

Remember, this applies to iOS 6 only. Earlier versions of iOS had greater limitations, and later iOS versions have much more generous limits on Safari tab use.