Opera has always stood out by offering special features that, in some cases, can convince you to use its browser instead of the more popular options, like Google Chrome. For example, at one point I used an Opera browser just because it included a free VPN that doesn’t require installing any extensions. Otherwise, Opera also offers a built-in ad blocker, as well as a sidebar that provides quick access to the most commonly used messaging services. And thanks to the R2 update (build 114.0.5282.115) of Opera One, the latter becomes an even more interesting alternative, especially for those who use many tabs and are looking for new ways to increase their productivity.
While it was already possible to group tabs into “islands”, it also becomes possible to create groups of two tabs which are displayed side by side on the window. Let’s say, for example, that I’m working on a Portuguese website and I need to have a translator working alongside that site. I could merge the Portuguese site with a tab for Google Translate, so that these two pages are always opened together and displayed side by side. To use this feature, simply drag and drop the tab you want to merge.
And that’s not all, since Opera One R2 also includes a new feature called Tab Traces which allows the user to find their way when they use a lot of tabs. In essence, this feature places a visual indicator at recently opened tabs, so that they are easy to find.
In addition to this new system for managing tabs, Opera One R2 also offers AI integrated into navigation. Pressing Ctrl+Shift+/ (on Windows) takes the user to Opera’s Aria wizard. And you can enter a prompt on this interface, just like you would on ChatGPT or Gemini.
But that’s not all, since by pressing Tab, you access another mode called “page context” which can respond to queries related to the content of the active tab. In the example below, for example, I ask the AI to explain to me the function of the open web page.
Note also that the Aria assistant can also be opened from the sidebar on the right and, in addition to responding to prompts, it can generate images.
- Opera has just launched its Opera One R2 browser
- This offers very interesting new features for managing tabs
- Opera One R2 also has a built-in AI that can be queried about the content of the opened page
