Apple has quietly introduced an improvement aimed at enhancing the browsing experience in Safari for users of ProMotion-enabled devices. According to a report titled “Enable Smoother 120Hz Browsing in Safari,” published by StartupNews.fyi on January 22, 2026, the technology giant has made it easier for iPhone and iPad users with high-refresh-rate displays to unlock the full 120Hz potential of Safari on iOS.
The enhancement is part of a broader push to optimize performance for the latest Apple hardware, which increasingly features high-refresh-rate screens designed to deliver smoother scrolling and improved responsiveness. Until recently, Safari’s rendering of web content did not consistently take full advantage of the 120Hz refresh rate capability available on iPhones and iPads with ProMotion technology, such as the iPhone 13 Pro and later models.
Developers and users had previously noted limitations where web content would display at lower frame rates, undermining the seamless feel promised by the advanced displays. StartupNews.fyi reports that this shortcoming is being addressed through a set of implementation adjustments that allow Safari to better coordinate with system-level display settings, resulting in noticeably smoother navigation and interaction.
Apple has not made any formal announcement about the change, but developers familiar with the company’s WebKit frameworks have observed modifications that allow safer and more consistent use of the `requestAnimationFrame` method at higher frame rates. This improvement ensures that animations and input feedback can now run at 120 frames per second, aligning the browser’s behavior more closely with the screen’s refresh capabilities.
The move is seen as a technical but important step toward achieving parity between native applications and web-based experiences on Apple devices. While Apple’s hardware has long been capable of 120Hz performance, the full realization of this in third-party apps and web environments has been a gradual process. Enabling Safari to consistently operate at higher refresh rates could reduce the perception gap between apps and mobile web experiences and may encourage broader use of web technologies in high-performance contexts.
It remains to be seen whether Apple will expand this improved refresh capability to other parts of the iOS ecosystem. However, this development signals the company’s continuing attention to user experience details and its evolving strategy for integrating hardware advantages into web-based use cases. As advanced display technologies become common in flagship devices, ensuring that built-in software makes full use of these systems will likely gain further importance. The reported changes to Safari suggest Apple is beginning to close that loop.
