Opera Revamps Its Browser on iOS, Keeps One-Handed Experience

Opera Software has redesigned and rebranded its Opera Touch browser on iOS, keeping the one-handed experience intact whilst adding improvements like a new color palette.

Opera Touch on iOS Is Now Just Opera

Rebranded to just Opera on iOS, the app now features a flatter design along with a more refined appearance. You'll instantly notice the new color scheme with the purple logo on the home screen switched to red, says the announcement on the Opera website.

"Other visual changes will be happening in the background animations of the main user interface as we introduce a cleaner and smoother design for a more refined look and feel," according to the Norwegian software developer behind the Opera browsers.

The company has removed design features like shadows and diagonal backgrounds.

The revamp of the user interface in Opera also unveils a neater and flatter design that gives the browser a more refined appearance than before. The new-look replaces the diagonal background pattern, initially introduced into Opera Touch, with flat surfaces and removing shadows on bubbles and other elements. New icons have been added in the bottom bar and the Fast Action button.

If you're not familiar with Opera, the Fast Action feature is one of the best things about Opera. Tapping this button reveals a radial menu that lets you swipe through one-handed actions with your thumb, such as closing tabs, switching between tabs, and more.

This one-handed menu is particularly handy on iPhones with large displays. Opera Software plans on adding additional visual changes to Opera's user interface in the upcoming months.

What About Opera's features?

Thankfully, the visual overhaul has not removed popular Opera features and functionality, such as the aforementioned Fast Action button and the popular speed dial bubbles on the main screen giving you one-tap access to your most visited websites.

Related: How to Configure Your Browser to Trick Websites

Opera for iOS also makes it a cinch to establish a secure connection between computers and mobile devices---hit the Flow icon in the sidebar of Opera for desktop and a QR code appears. After scanning the code in Opera for iOS, you'll be able to share links, notes, images, files, and other items between desktop and mobile with no logins needed.

What About Opera Touch for Android?

On Android, the browser has not rebranded and is still referred to as Opera Touch. Speaking of which, Opera Touch debuted on iOS and Android nearly three years ago as a private web browser featuring a fast web search interface and other perks.

Subsequent updates have added plenty of new features to improve the experience for users, such as a built-in Ethereum wallet, Web 3 support, ad-blocker, cookie dialogue blocker, and protection against disguised cryptocurrency mining (cryptojacking).

The iOS version has become the fastest-growing edition of Opera after Apple started allowing iPhone and iPad users to change their default browser with the release of the iOS 14 update. As of February 2021, Opera for iOS saw a whopping 65 percent annual growth.

Opera Touch won the 2018 Red Dot Award along with the 2019 iF design award for its user interface design. Today, Opera Touch has nearly three million monthly active users worldwide on mobile platforms. It's available on mobile devices as Opera Touch for Android and Opera for iOS. Opera for computers is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

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