Let’s take a look back at 2021 in Opera desktop

December 31st, 2021

Happy Holidays to all the Opera users! As we all reflect on the past year, we thought it would be great to reflect on the changes you´ve experienced with Opera over the past year. A lot has changed this year and here are our 2021 highlights!

Pinboards to better organize your ideas and share them too

Pinboards were a really exciting addition to the Opera browser this year. Gone are the days of copy pasting links in group chats senselessly. With Pinboards, you´re able to collect, organize, and share your ideas online with friends and family. You can use this feature to share your ideas with others, whether it be group holiday ideas, home inspiration, or a shopping wishlist, and get their reactions without needing to install a new app or even sign up for a new service. The best bit is that pinboards look great no matter what browser or device you view them from. Give it a try, create a pinboard on the Opera Browser

Video Conferencing Popout that made your videocalls more pleasant

Video conferencing has become a mainstay in today’s new normal. 57% of people are using their browsers to join calls, yet we are all too familiar with calls using up the entire screen which is quite burdensome as we need to juggle between tabs.

With Video Conferencing Pop Out, we made multitasking during calls that much easier! Whether it be Google Meets or Microsoft Teams, your call will automatically pop out when you switch to another tab and pop back when you return to the original tab. You can also make the window transparent to get even more screen space to play with. It all helps make video calling that much easier. Opera will also indicate which tab the call is taking place in so you’ll never have to wonder which tab to close after your call is done.

Tabs management features that saved everyone a lot of time

Throughout the year, we have introduced a number of updates that makes life for tab hoarders that much easier.

Searching for the right tab can be tricky from time to time. With our Opera’s Search in Tabs shortcut, you’re able to search through tab titles and page content to find the right tab with CTRL+Space.

Later in the year, we also introduced our Fast Tab Tooltip! It can be difficult to make out which tab is which, especially if they are from the same site. With Fast Tab Tooltip, hovering over the tab shows a more extensive custom tooltip displaying the full title of the page. The best bit is that if there are more tabs from the same domain, they will all be listed to find the exact one you want!

What this means in practice is that you get a view of all your open google docs or youtube tabs simply by hovering over one of the open tabs.

More music streaming services for your to enjoy

Opera is known for its built-in features, like all the social messengers integrated into the browser. It also boasts native access to Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube music in the Player feature in the sidebar. We made this feature more inclusive with a wider range of music services including Deezer, Tidal, SoundCloud and Gaana.

Opera added more music services in the sidebar including Tidal and Gaana

The Player feature itself has also been improved with additional controls for music playback. Simply hover over the player icon in the sidebar for a mini control popup, and skip, play, pause, or drag the playback timeline, without having to open the feature’s panel.

Apple M1 Support that made Opera 2x faster on computers with M1 processors

This update was great news for anyone with the latest Apple device. We all want our computers to be as fast as possible. Whether it be loading pages or opening apps, we wish our browsing experience to be as seamless as possible.

Opera became two times faster on Macs with M1 processors

We introduced native support for the newest lines of Apple M1 processors. It has allowed Opera to run x2 faster than previous versions. It all means you can access your favourite sites faster and transition between Opera´s built in features much quicker!

Cashback in selected countries

Saving money on the things we buy is something we all dream of. This year, we made this more of a reality for our users by becoming the first browser to offer a smart shopping mode and give you a seamless and safe cashback service without needing to download any extra extensions. Our users are now able to earn money back while shopping on partner sites and claim their cashback in the new Dify app. We have begun to roll this out across Europe, starting in Spain and expanding to Poland, Russia and Ukraine and hope to offer cashback to more countries our users are in soon!

2021 has been an amazing year for us and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. We wish all of you a happy holiday and look forward to bringing you some great new features in the upcoming year!

Opera became available in Microsoft Store on Windows

Last but not least, Opera and Opera GX became available in Microsoft Store. We are very thankful to you, our users, for supporting Opera and requesting that our browsers become available. Opening the Microsoft Store to other browsers is a step in the right direction of more user choice.

That’s it on the last day of 2021. We wish you a Happy New Year and look forward to bringing you some great new features and products in the upcoming year!