Opera is working on a fresh browser called Opera Air, designed with your mental well-being in mind. These are ambitious claims for a web browser, but Opera has built in a range of innovative features aimed at enhancing mindfulness. Though Opera Air is still in its early access phase, it’s available for anyone to try. My initial experience suggests it’s not just a solid everyday browser but also offers genuinely helpful tools for mindfulness and mental health.
Web browsers rank among the most frequently used and popular applications on virtually all platforms. Typically, Google Chrome takes the lead in browser market share, with Apple’s Safari holding a respectable second place. According to StatCounter, Chrome captures 67.05% of the market while Safari commands 17.96%, leaving other browsers scrambling for the remaining 15%. Developers often aim to make their browsers stand out by focusing on security or offering unique browsing features.
Opera decided to try something different with Opera Air. Apart from the standard features you’d expect like an ad blocker, a built-in VPN, and full web compatibility, its standout elements are centered on mindfulness.
Opera Air incorporates shortcuts to smart exercises, meditation sessions, and “Boosts” within the browser environment. From what I’ve observed, these Boosts have been generating the most buzz. The browser offers a library of audio files featuring sounds claimed to “stimulate different brain waves.” These include binaural beats, where slightly different frequencies in each ear create the illusion of a new tone.
Now, I’m no medical expert, so I can’t definitively speak to how effective a “Theta 6Hz” audio file might be in boosting creativity or how any of the other Boosts may affect the body. From my perspective, the Boosts seem to deliver as promised. I found the “Creativity” Boost calming, yet it kept me alert rather than sending me to dreamland. A convenient aspect of the Boosts is their customizability; you can tweak various sound elements, such as increasing the volume of the binaural tones or the ambient noise.
While Opera can’t claim to have invented neck exercises, guided meditations, or brain-stimulating audio, it integrates these features into one cohesive interface. This means you won’t need to scour the web and clutter your screen with multiple windows. It’s a refreshing approach that’s attracting some attention. A colleague of mine, Stephen Warwick from TechRadar, has even opted to switch from Chrome to Opera Air for personal browsing. Our team at the parent company, however, still relies on Chrome heavily for work purposes, so we keep it installed for professional use.
