First natural step after publishing your Chrome extension is to migrate to other platforms such as Firefox or Safari. Before we move on to how we can migrate Chrome extensions to Safari, let’s first understand why you should.
First natural step after publishing your Chrome extension is to migrate to other platforms such as Firefox or Safari. Before we move on to how we can migrate Chrome extensions to Safari, let’s first understand why you should.
Since Safari is the second most popular browser especially in the U.S.A, an organization can see major growth in their product users, and so in their revenue, by tapping into that user group. Another reason to migrate to Safari is B2B customers like to have their extensions compatible with as many browsers as possible. Not supporting popular browsers can lead to a substantial drop in conversion. These are two of the most important reasons to make Safari migration a priority.
Now that we are talking about Safari, it is important to know the user base of Safari worldwide and in the USA, especially on the desktop.
As you can see, Safari has a significant 36% user base in the USA, and you can now evaluate what that could mean to your business.
It is equally important to know Safari version market share as extension development may differ based on the Safari version. So here it is.
Safari 14.1 has over 60% market share among all the Safari versions. And according to all estimates, it will increase further.
As mentioned before, Safari extension development could differ according to the version and on that basis, these are the different ways in which an extension can be built.
Having that in mind, we can decide what path we can take to build our Safari extension.
As we know Safari Web Extensions are supported on 14 and above, we can build either a Web extension or App extension.
To get started with creating a Safari web extension, you have two options:
Safari app extensions use a combination of JavaScript, CSS, and native code written in Objective-C or Swift. Because you build Safari app extensions on the standard app extension model, you get many native app benefits:
If you are building a new extension, you go for Web extension, as it is way too easy to build the application as compared to app extension. This method also works great if you have the extension already built for Chrome, Edge or Firefox.
If you have some native code that cannot be migrated to javascript, then you may want to try working with Safari App Extension.
Please Note, Safari Web extensions has some limitations with using web extension APIs and are not fully developed. They may need to have a workaround in some cases as compared to other extensions. One other thing to remember is, cookies are not shared between website and extension.
An experienced Chrome extension developer can create Safari web extensions with a learning curve. The learning curve includes learning XCode, support for web extension APIs, and publishing process for app store. macOS/iOS developers can help with the publishing.
Safari app extensions can be developed by macOS app developers who have hands-on experience with Objective-C or Swift.
Create an Apple ID and enroll for either Apple Developer or Apple Developer Enterprise Program. This will enable you to publish your products on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and iMessage.On the Safari Extensions Gallery, Membership in the Apple Developer program would cost $99 and $299 for the Enterprise Program annually.
Next, Create an identity via https://developer.apple.com/account/resources/identifiers/list/bundleId
In-App store connect, create an app of ‘macApp’
In the bundle, ID drop-down, just select the one newly created
Once you are ready with the macApp, you will need to submit your extension for review to get it published on the Mac App Store. However, Apple might suggest changes and you have to revise your extension to comply with Apple policies. You can check the review guidelines of the Apple App Store here.
Once you have your app published on the Mac app store, now users can search for the extension and install the extension. You can also share your extension link with your users.
Next, on your marketing website, you can detect Safari and show the correct link to the Safari extension with directions on how to install it.
It is always a good idea to have your product on as many platforms as possible, so as to have a good scope of reaching the largest number of users and eventually increase your user base. After seeing the numbers, it is clear that Safari is the one platform that you wouldn’t want to miss.
VSH Solutions has over a decade of experience developing browser extensions. If you have any questions or queries about building/converting an extension, our dedicated Safari extension, and plugin development team will be happy to answer them for you. Just drop us a line at browser extension services.
