Software update: Vivaldi 3.5

Version 3.5 of the web browser Vivaldi has been released. Vivaldi is a web browser developed by former Opera employees. He mainly focuses on power users and users of Opera before the switch to Chromium, although this browser is also based on it. Vivaldi has extensive capabilities such as mouse gestures, tab stacking, extended keyboard shortcuts, and annotation on web pages. The browser is free and is being developed for Windows, Linux and macOS, and since version 3.4 also for Android. The release notes for this release are as follows:

More ways to manage Tabs

Each one of you has different ways of working with tabs. Based on your feedback, we include all possible options in our comprehensive Tab Management. Here are some new additions to our wizardry tab:

• Open a new tab in the background by default: A new open in the background setting makes it possible to change the default behavior regarding opening tabs via the context menu.
• Clone tab in the background: This will help you clone a current tab with previous page browsing history not interrupting any task you are currently working on.
• Improved Popup Thumbnails for Tab Stacks: You’ll notice some changes while hovering a tab stack, helping you spot and select any tab in a stack instantly. More stacked tabs now fit on a screen, displaying a page title, domain, and thumbnail. You can also interact with audio icons, giving you easy control of sound in stacked tabs.

Media playback improvements

Recently, some of you have been inconvenienced while playing premium streaming services like Amazon Prime HD, Spotify, Peacock TV, and others. Such sites use DRM (Digital Rights Management) as a way to control where you can play videos. These websites may use widevine – a Chromium content decryption module – to play the video in Vivaldi on Windows and macOS.

The websites may also check the Widevine certificate keys before playing. Vivaldi has now added Widevine certificate keys, which will allow videos to play on those websites. This means media sites using Widevine DRM that previously did not work in Vivaldi will now deliver the content smoothly. For example, if you frequent Amazon Prime HD, Spotify, Disney+, Peacock TV in your browser, gear up for a better experience than before.

Please note that for Amazon Prime HD to work, click on the lock in the Address Bar → Site Settings → “Clear Data”. After this, a re-login is required.

Easy sharing of URLs with QR Codes

You can now easily share URLs to other devices using a QR code generator built into Vivaldi. Capable of malfunctioning a lot of data, QR (Quick Response) code lets you access information instantly. You can share addresses with other machines without the requirement of a direct network connection between them.

Scanning a QR code is much faster than retyping the URL on your other device. With QR codes, you can transfer the URL of the page you are currently viewing to another device, such as a phone, without needing a Sync account. This works well if you are not signed in to Sync, don’t have a device that supports Vivaldi Sync, or just wish to simply transfer the URL to a nearby friend’s phone.

We plan to evolve this feature with additional, simplified ways of sharing URLs. Head to “Settings → Address Bar → Address Field Options → QR Code Generator” to enable QR code URL sharing.

Menu customization

While some browsers strip down functionality, we do the opposite. We’ve expanded our Settings menu with more customizable options helping you rearrange and edit your frequent actions. Now, shortcuts assigned to a global command will also be shown in the context menus (right click menus).

Go to “Settings → Appearance → Menus”, select a context menu, and add a command from the Application Commands that have a shortcut to the context menu. That menu will now show the shortcut for that action. For example, add the reload menu that is used in the Tab Menu by default to any other Menu that is configurable and adjust your workflows per your needs in Vivaldi.

Single Key Shortcuts improvements

In Vivaldi, you can do most things with keyboard shortcuts – opening and closing tabs, switching tabs, toggling the visibility of UI elements, creating notes, and a lot more. Single Keyboard Shortcuts allow quicker navigation. You are not required to hold Ctrl or Shift. You can skip to the previous page by pressing z and the next page by pressing x. There are also default single key shortcuts such as by pressing 1 and 2, you can easily change tabs.

In this version, we resolve a clash in using Single Key Shortcuts. For example, if you need to enter a credit card number that has the number 1 in it, it will not switch to a previous tab which is what the default keyboard shortcut “1” has been assigned to.

New accept language setting

In order to cater to multi-language users across the globe, a language setting has been enabled that allows you to change to your preferred language, as supported by certain websites. You can add custom languages ​​or rearrange their importance with drag & drop reordering in Vivaldi Settings. Head to vivaldi://settings/languages ​​to learn more.

Other additions

Along with improvements to every aspect of the browser, you’ll find more options in Vivaldi 3.5:

• We now give you more control in choosing external components. Google Hangouts, Google Cast, and Google Cloud Print can now be disabled entirely in settings.
• We have added an option to always display the close tab button, to make closing tabs easier on touch screen devices. Find this new option in the Tab Settings.