Vivaldi 8.3 Delivers a Rebuilt Ad and Tracker Blocker, More

Don’t be fooled by the version number: Vivaldi 8.3 is a major release, with a rebuilt Ad and Tracker Blocker in the desktop and mobile versions of the browser and some other features on the desktop.

“While much of the browser market turns browsing into data to be harvested and profiles to be sold, Vivaldi is the independent European alternative,” Team Vivaldi writes in the announcement post. “Vivaldi doesn’t track its users, doesn’t build profiles of them and doesn’t sell their data. The company’s business doesn’t depend on knowing what people search for or when they’re ready to buy something, so Vivaldi has no reason to watch them.”

Vivaldi 8.3 for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iPhone, and iPad extends those protections to the rest of the web, the organization says, with a newly rebuilt Ad and Tracker Blocker that offers four levels of protection: Off, Light (blocks most trackers and some ads), Strong (sites may break), and Aggressive (sites may break).

Vivaldi users will pick a default protection level during setup, or they can make a change at any time in the app’s settings interface. But you can also choose a default level of protection on a site-by-site basis as you browse by clicking the Shield icon in the Address Bar and Vivaldi will remember those configurations too.

“A user can run Aggressive on a video site, keep online banking on Light so every form works, and turn protection down on a small independent site they trust and want to support,” the team notes. “For advanced users, Vivaldi 8.3 also adds custom levels, giving full control over which blocklists are used. Custom lists can be added from a remote URL or a local file.”

Vivaldi 8.3 for desktop also includes:

• Vertical tabs improvements. Vivaldi 8.3 adds two new vertical tab features: The ability to dynamically expand the tab bar when you hover over it with the mouse cursor and a side-by-side layout for pinned tabs that reminds me a bit of Arc Browser.
• Paste and Go for multiple links. Now, you can paste a list of URLs into the Vivaldi Address Bar and it will open each in its own tab.
• Copy Sanitized Link. This removes tracking parameters from links before they’re copied.
• Faster Reader Mode. Reader Mode now opens and scrolls more quickly.
• Tap Groups API support. Extensions built on the Chrome Tab Groups API now work in Vivaldi too.

Vivaldi 8.3 is available now from the Vivaldi website, while Vivaldi for Android is available from the Google Play Store and Vivaldi for iPhone and iPad is available from the Apple App Store.