Opera announced a beta version of its mobile browser for iPhone and iPad that’s been reimagined with the Opera One look and feel.
“Whether you’re a tech nerd or a daily iOS user looking to see what we’ve cooked up next, we invite you to join the beta testing of the newly updated Opera for iOS,” Opera’s Patrick Curtin writes in the announcement post. “The new beta version of Opera for iOS features an overhauled user interface inspired by the award-winning aesthetics of Opera One.”
If you are interested, move quickly: You have to sign up for the beta, which requires Apple’s TestFlight system, limiting enrollment (to 8,000 testers, in this case). Opera will email you if you get in.
What it’s providing is a clean, modular new user interface with an address bar at the bottom that auto-hides when you start scrolling. There are three navigation styles—standard, fast action button, and bottom address bar—and Opera has replaced the old newsfeed with a start page carousel with newsfeed highlights, live sports scores, and other information. It features swipe-to-search with search suggestions, built-in ad and tracker blockers and a free VPN, and it of course includes Aria, Opera’s in-browser AI companion. Among other things, you can use generative AI to create images for free.
Opera expects to ship this new version of its mobile browser for iPhone and iPad in stable and with additional new features later this summer.