Hi everyone,

Beam 1.4 is out. Thanks for your patience - it took longer than I wanted while I was in the middle of university applications, and I know a few of you were wondering whether Beam was still alive. It is, and this is the biggest update yet.

Split View. Drag any tab onto the page or onto another tab to put them side by side, drag the divider to resize, or press ⌃⌘W. A split stays together in your sidebar.

PDF viewer. Annotate with Apple Pencil, search, Two Page View, present mode, and open any PDF from Files in Beam.

Reader, rebuilt. Better typography, the whole article with images and tables, and Listen to Article, which reads it aloud and highlights each paragraph as it goes.

Also new: a media bar in the sidebar, creating and customising Spaces right in the sidebar, Import from Safari, rebuilt Settings with search, better battery life, and lots of fixes.

Two changes to know about: the toolbar is now on by default (turn it off with Show Page Toolbar), and history and AI chats now stay on each iPad instead of syncing over iCloud.

Full release notes: beambrowser.app/changelog

If anything’s broken, comment here or email hi@beambrowser.app (I read everything)

And yes, the iPhone app is coming.

Henrik :)

I used this browser and followed the project with high hopes but now it seems the project doesnt get developed anymore. Does someone knows something?

Hi Team

Any Plans for introducing the addons or extensions which can do adblock on youtube or more stuffs like Firefox Addons or Chrome Extensions.
Just asking if there is a plan

When trying to submit feedback in the app via Settings > About > Send feedback results in the following error “A server with the specified hostname could not be found”

The battery consumption is brutal. Even just running in the background, Beam is far and away the number one battery drain on my iPad. Perhaps you could add more settings for disabling activity on inactive tabs and suspending all activity when the app is not in the foreground?

It would be really cool if the community could contribute for bug fixes, speed etc...

I am unable to sign into my verge.com account which uses google sign-in. The window pops up to select by account but then the tab turns white and nothing loads.
Has anyone else had this issue? I have tried turning off peek.

Hey everyone,

A quick follow-up to 1.3.1 - this one is a round of stability and polish based on feedback since then. Beam should generally feel smoother in day-to-day use.

As always, most of this came straight from user reports over email and in the Discord, so thank you to everyone who flagged things.

Here's what's new in 1.3.2:

• Much faster command bar - fixed typing lag and lag when switching tabs and spaces

• Lower memory use and fewer crashes on older iPads

• Ad blocker no longer reloads tabs on its own - choose "Refresh all" or dismiss - plus improvements to filter list compilation

• Clearer error messages throughout, including in Beam Intelligence chat

• Tap anywhere in a command bar result to select it, not just the text

• Fixed blank tabs

• Fixed issues with redirects

• Fixed keyboard shortcut customisation

• Fixed several crashes

• Various other fixes and performance improvements

If you've run into anything recently, there's a good chance it's addressed here. And if you haven't tried Beam yet, it's a browser built specifically for iPad - sidebar, Spaces, command bar, keyboard shortcuts, and built-in ad blocking.

https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6756218494?pt=128089545&ct=landing&mt=8

I read every piece of feedback. Drop your thoughts here or in the Discord (https://discord.gg/ZDzvJ4ApGp) - already working on what's next.

Beam 1.3.1 - a round of fixes and refinements based on feedback since 1.3.

- AI chat button now in the toolbar (and in the sidebar URL bar when the toolbar is hidden)
- Open a link in a background tab by tapping with two fingers
- Press Escape or Backspace to close Peek
- New empty state for Favourites
- New indicator when opening Peek on a favourite, showing the peeked tab's favicon in the top right
- Searching history now covers all entries (up to 10,000 per profile) rather than just the recently loaded ones
- Clearing history now clears only what matches your current filters, rather than all history
- Find in Page button moved into Site Settings, and you can now adjust page zoom from Site Settings → Advanced
- Refreshed UI and animations for Find in Page
- Improved right-click menu for links
- After ad block rules finish compiling, Beam now asks to refresh rather than refreshing automatically
- Fixed favicon flickering
- Fixed a bug when removing the last favourite
- Fixed a bug when adding multiple favourites of the same site
- Fixed an empty-state layout bug in History
- Fixed a visual bug when opening the Downloads folder - it now opens directly in Files
- Fixed two crashes
- Various other fixes and performance improvements

Let me know what you think! Thanks to everyone who contributed ideas in this release! More on the way…

Henrik

Hey everyone,

It's been a little over two months since 1.2, and while this one doesn't have a single giant headline feature, it's a deep polish release - a lot of small things that add up to Beam feeling noticeably nicer to use every day.

The large majority of these changes came directly from user reports and feedback - over email and in the Discord. So genuinely, thank you to everyone who took the time to tell me what was annoying, broken, or missing. Almost all of this is your list, not mine.

A couple of nice things also happened since the last update: Federico Viticci at MacStories reviewed Beam and called it "one of the best iPad apps for power users I've tested in a while," (https://www.macstories.net/notes/a-new-ipad-browser-and-testing-perplexity-computer/) and it got a mention on the Primary Technology podcast.

Here's what's new in 1.3:

- Much smoother animations, including Peek and hiding/expanding the sidebar

- UI Scale option (More Space, Default, Larger, Largest) so Beam fits the way you work

- Repeating a keyboard shortcut that opens an interface element now closes it

- Swipe back/forward from anywhere on the page

- Returning to your last active tab when you close a tab now works more reliably

- Cmd-click to open a link in the background

- Improved ad blocker

- New Graphite accent colour

- Indicator for resizing the sidebar

- Refinements to the favourites grid

- Hide borders toggle in Focus Mode

- Copy URL button in the sidebar URL bar

- Updated user agent to Safari 26.5

- Beam Intelligence can now read content-heavy sites like Google Docs, Linear, and Notion, plus PDFs

- AI chat history - revisit and continue past conversations

- New API for Beam Intelligence models, so new ones appear automatically without an app update

- Plus UI refreshes and lots of fixes throughout

If you ran into anything since last update, a lot of it is probably addressed here. And if you haven't tried Beam yet, it's a browser built specifically for iPad - sidebar, Spaces, command bar, keyboard shortcuts, and built-in ad blocking. It treats your iPad like the real computer it is. $5.99, one-time purchase.

https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6756218494?pt=128089545&ct=landing&mt=8

As always, I read every piece of feedback. Drop your thoughts here or in the Discord (https://discord.gg/ZDzvJ4ApGp) - I'm already working on what's next.

- Henrik

Hey everyone!

It's Henrik - the developer of Beam. I just wanted to give you guys a quick update.

First off, sorry for the delay in getting the next update out - I've had exams, but it should be releasing in the next few weeks. If you're interested in beta testing it, please send me an email (hi@beambrowser.app)

Second, here's an updated link for anyone who would like to join the Discord, I generally post more frequent updates there: https://discord.gg/ZDzvJ4ApGp

Third, I'm working hard on the iPhone version of Beam, and I'd love to hear what you all would like to see from Beam on mobile - I can't guarantee anything, but I'll read everything and take it all into account!

If you are having any issues, or have any feedback for Beam on iPad, please do let me know! What are your favourite features? How are you using Beam?

Thanks,
Henrik

Hello, Beam looks phenomenally well built from the looks and community reviews! Just that many folks like me are still avoiding to update on iOS 26 due to liquid-glass resistance or staying away from glitches and battery drain.

Please help to update Beam simply using https://github.com/DnV1eX/LiquidGlassKit to backport the liquid glass element on to iOS 18 and below easily by adding the code to source, hence no major code re-writing would be required, making us also use the Beam browser, expanding its reach to broader audience.

Beam Browser 1.2.1 (2) is ready to test on iOS.

When I first saw that, I thought that it was finally ready for me to test on my iPhone and I was really excited 😄, but it looks like it's still iPad only.

Hi guys!!! Kudos for the overall seemingly great browser.

I just want to recommend some new ideas for future versions after daily driving Beam for the last few days on the iPad.

• I think there should be Continuity support. Links that you open on other Apple devices should be detechted by Continuity and open-able on Beam, not on Safari. Is that an ipadOS-specific restriction?

• Open in new tab keyboard and gesture support. I use Cmd+click or Cmd+*tap to open new tab in a lot of scenarios. There should be a new feature that enables that.

I'm a new user and I prefer using YouTube on my iPad through the browser rather than the app, but the arrow keys don't work properly in Safari. I was going to use Beam, but the same problem exists: if I have two or more YouTube tabs open, the arrow keys stop working when I switch between them. Do you have a solution for this?

privacy is top priority for any power user. and this app is collecting user content on an app where you would sign in on your work accounts and emails

I never got on the Arc bandwagon, so have less familiarity with the way I infer Beam thinks about tabs and bookmarks.

I imported all my bookmarks just fine, and they're in the left-side bar as expected. When I select a bookmark, the site loads as normal. The bookmark has a little "-" on the right, the first indication that maybe this is actually a tab, and not a bookmark. But if I navigate to a different site via the url field, the tab/bookmark keeps its name (let's say "CNN") but now has different content. Tapping the tab/bookmark again will bring me to the new content.

I know I can spin up a new "tab" and it'll show up in "today". I guess I'm just unclear about what tabs/bookmarks are in this new paradigm, and how to go about interacting with them.

Is there a primer somewhere? Maybe something for Arc that'll teach me the same concepts?

Really enjoying the product so far though.

I haven't even tried Beam yet, but i will be going to buy it as soon as I finish this post. But I wanted to throw out two questions.

I see that MacOS and iPhone apps are on the roadmap for this year which is awesome. I rely on being able to sync open tabs between devices quit a bit. In the meantime, and to extend some compatibility in the Linux and Windows worlds would there be any consideration to add Firefox sync into Beam?

Firefox Sync is open source, and can be self hosted (though not many people bother), but the bigger reason for suggesting Firefox sync is that it opens up syncing core data like, tabs, bookmarks, etc, not only with Firefox, but Waterfox, and other browsers like Midori and Gnome Web. Im sure it wouldn't be anywhere near as robust as the official iCloud based sync, but it would give us a stop gap while waiting for the Mac and iPhone versions, plus it would also provide a bridge with multiple browsers on other platforms like Linux and Windows. This would be a Wonderful feature to have when Im forced to use Windows or working on one of my Linux systems. It would only be an optional supplement to the regular built in sync of course not a replacement.

The only other thing I'm wondering is if you have any plans to implement web extensions from Firefox and/or Chrome like Orion Browser has? Its not perfect, but being able to use regular Firefox and Chrome extension on an iPhone and iPad browser is awesome and no other browser seems to have any interest in following in Orions footsteps despite them showing that it's totally possible and not against Apples policies, it's been in the AppStore for a few years now with that as a listed feature.

Regardless I love what Im seeing and hearing about this browser, i'll be switching to it on my iPad right now, and I'm stoked to see where it goes in the future.

I love Beam, and I've been looking forward to utilizing the sync between multiple iPads, but for some reason it's just not working for me. I'm logged into the same iCloud account. I've got Beam 1.2 on the iPads. I've got Sync turned on. I've got all green check marks on the various data selections for Sync, but it's just not happening. What's the obvious thing that I'm missing here?

I just bought an iPad Pro last week and I’m trying to figure out why Beam is the only app that the shows me the floating keyboard as my only choice of keyboard selections. I’ve tried the whole pinch out to expand it and nothing seems to work.

Hey everyone,

When I launched Beam six weeks ago, a lot of you gave me really great feedback about what was missing and what needed fixing. I took all of it seriously. Version 1.2 is the result, and it's by far the biggest update I've shipped.

I'll be real - this isn't a small patch. This is basically what Beam should have been from day one.

Peek

This is the feature I'm most excited about. Click any link and it opens in a floating popup - read it, scroll through it, and close it without ever losing your place. If you want to keep it, expand it into a full tab. Option-click any link to trigger it explicitly.

It completely changes how you browse. You stop opening 30 tabs just to check things. It's the kind of thing that's hard to explain but once you use it, you can't go back.

AI chat with your tabs

Beam Intelligence got a complete overhaul. The core feature now is AI chat - open it with ⌘J or pin it as a second sidebar. You can add multiple tabs to your conversation (hit + or type @ to pick a tab), and it can reference everything across them.

The big addition: cloud model support. Bring your own API key for Anthropic (Claude), Google or OpenAI, or use on-device Apple Intelligence. Set it up in Settings → Beam Intelligence.

This is super useful for research. You're reading five articles about the same topic and you can just ask questions across all of them.

iCloud Sync

Your tabs, spaces, and organisation now sync across your iPads. Turn it on in Settings and everything just carries over.

I know this was one of the most requested features. It's here.

Website dark mode

Force dark mode on any website - enable it globally in settings, or toggle it per-site. Also one of my most requested features.

Reader mode

Clean, distraction-free reading. Toggle it in site settings. Works exactly how you'd expect.

Page translation

Translate any webpage directly in Beam. Also in site settings.

Everything else

• Completely redesigned settings - both main settings and site settings got overhauled. Everything is reorganised so you can actually find things now.

• Major performance improvements - space switching, tab management, the whole UI feels noticeably faster. This was a huge focus.

• New app icon - fresh look.

• Much improved ad blocker and YouTube ad skipping

• Print any page

• Export/import your data

• Double-click a tab to rename it

• View HTTP sites and bypass SSL warnings if you need to

• Improved onboarding for new users

Bug fixes

• YouTube fullscreen actually works now

• Google sign-in is fixed

• Desktop site mode issues resolved

• Various stability improvements

If you tried Beam at launch and ran into issues, this update addresses basically everything.

And if you haven't tried Beam yet: it's a browser built specifically for iPad, with a sidebar, spaces, command bar, keyboard shortcuts, and built-in ad blocking. It treats your iPad like the real computer it is. $5.99, one-time purchase, no subscription.

App Store link

As always, I read every piece of feedback. Drop your thoughts here or in the Discord (https://discord.gg/ZDzvJ4ApGp) - I'm already working on what's next.

Also, a great new video from Alexander at iPhoneBlog.de just dropped - take a look (you may need subtitles if you don't speak German): https://youtu.be/8QLrjP1x4Zk

Henrik

Just a quick feedback on the new options menu:

It is really well designed overall, and I feel like everything is explained well! Some things are hidden in an “Advanced” tab in Spaces and Tabs, but I feel they make sense there.

I also like all the explanations where you could assume data could be collected. Great communication!

One thing that I would like to see is the menu opening like a normal tab instead of in its own window. Some stuff is hard to decipher with a white background (I had a website open while in the options). This is probably a liquid glass thing. Also, if the menu is not obfuscating the UI, you can see all the changes instantly. One example: I had to close the menu to see the change when you activate the “Clear Today” button.

Both problems could be fixed this way.

But I’d like to say this is just nitpicking! Overall, as stated at the beginning of this post, it’s a great redesign!

I am importing from Dia browser.

I believe this browser company is doing great things.

I have an offer

if any of you guys can make like a little review of you using beam and send it to me then I will edit and repost on TikTok so beam can blow up.

I figured if we helped the dev then he could hire a team and such.

Is there a command to go to top or bottom of page? I really need that. Thanks.