Opera has released Opera One for iOS; it’s a free download at the Apple App Store.
The AI-powered flagship browser for iPhone features the aesthetics of the Opera One desktop browser along with a full screen mobile interface and simplified user commands, according to Jona Bolin, product manager at Opera.
Opera has introduced a new navigation style with Bottom Search, which shifts the search bar to the bottom of the screen. Bolin says it allows users to more easily manipulate their devices with one hand.
Opera for iOS users can now switch between three navigation styles – Standard Navigation, Fast Action Button, and Bottom Search – to find the one that best suits their needs.
Opera One for iOS also comes with a revamped search functionality designed to simplify and speed up browsing. When a user starts typing a search query, new search suggestions provide the completion of a word or the best matching next word.
Users also now get a new way to access the search bar through the swipe to search functionality, in which simply swiping down will activate the search bar. Bolin says the intuitive gesture will be familiar to every iOS user, as it’s the same movement employed when searching for apps on an iPhone.
Engineered to maximize screen space and minimize distractions, the new design of Opera One displays those elements of the browser the user is engaging with while hiding the rest, he adds. The top bar and new Bottom Search bar, for example, vanish when users start scrolling on a page – as opposed to other mobile browsers for iOS, in which the bottom bar continues to occupy space on the screen.
What’s more, in Opera One for iOS, the color of the top and status bars adjusts to the hue of the web page visited. The result is a full screen browsing experience in which users are entirely immersed in what’s at hand, without any extraneous elements to distract them, Bolin says.
The new version of Opera for iOS also replaces the old newsfeed with a start page carousel filled with news, live scores, and product tips. And like all of Opera’s flagship products, Opera One for iOS is centered around AI.
It features Aria, a free, built-in browser AI that comes with up-to-date results from the web, plus the ability to assist in a range of tasks such as information retrieval, text or code generation, and product inquiries.
