Skip to main content

Vivaldi’s latest release proves it’s the Swiss Army knife of web browsers

Vivaldi Technologies released a new version of its web browser, Vivaldi, today, and the super-customizable browser boasts a handful of new features to provide an experience custom-tailored to your needs.

You, just you. That’s the tagline anyway — Vivaldi is “not for everybody, just for you,” and today’s update lives up to that promise with three new features designed specifically for your preferences.

Recommended Videos

With today’s updated version of Vivaldi, you can set themes to automatically switch depending on the time of day. Maybe you want a clean bright setting during work hours, but a nice muted dark theme for night time? Vivaldi’s got you covered.

Additionally, you can setup web panels – not to be confused with lowly tabs that other browsers use – to sit on the sidebar of your browser and connect to different websites or services. Social media, for instance, is a popular use case for the Vivaldi web panel feature. Today’s update will allow you to resize them according to your needs.

That might not sound like much, but consider the comparatively one-size-fits-all approach of other popular browsers.

Another feature unveiled today is small but pretty great: a single button to restore a recently closed tab. Yep, now you can finally restore that tab you accidentally closed when you were trying to close that other tab, by middle clicking the trash icon.

Vivaldi is the latest browser from the creators of Opera, and it’s definitely doing some interesting stuff within the browser space. While it’s not as clean as Chrome, and not as well-worn as Firefox, Vivaldi has shown promise in recent months with its broad array of customization options.

Vivaldi 1.4 Final is available now for Windows, MacOS, and Linux as a free download.

Like they say, though, it’s not for everyone.

Jaina Grey
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Jaina Grey is a Seattle-based journalist with over a decade of experience covering technology, coffee, gaming, and AI. Her…
I write about tech for a living — these are the browser extensions I install on every PC
A person using a laptop on a desk with a web browser showing the HubSpot marketplace on their screen.

I write about tech for a living, so you probably won’t be surprised to learn that I spend an unreasonable amount of time browsing the internet (those dog videos aren’t going to watch themselves). Over my many years of surfing the web, I’ve used a huge number of browser extensions to tune up my online experience.

Some have been better than others, but I've carefully curated a list that can elevate your internet experience and help take it to the next level. If you’re after some new extensions for Chrome, Safari, Firefox and all the other best web browsers, these are my own personal recommendations.
1Password

Read more
I found a Chrome extension that makes web browsing bearable again
Google Drive in Chrome on a MacBook.

GDPR cookie consent notices were meant to hand privacy control back to ordinary internet denizens. Instead, they’ve unleashed a tidal wave of deception, with unscrupulous website owners using any means necessary to trick you into letting them harvest your private data for resale and profit.

It wasn’t meant to be like this. But while things might have not gone so well for GDPR, there’s still a way to protect your privacy and banish those annoying pop-ups in one fell swoop. Instead of rage-clicking Accept just to get the damned pop-ups to go away, I’ve found a much better way: the Consent-O-Matic browser extension.

Read more
I tried the trendy new Arc browser — and this one feature blew my mind
The Arc web browser running on macOS Ventura, showing the tab sidebar on the left.

I'm a tab hoarder. I'm the type that tends to have literally hundreds of tabs open at any one time (I know, it’s a problem). That makes me the last person who you’d think would enjoy a browser like Arc.

The innovative new browser stashes tabs in a sidebar and automatically archives them if they haven't been used in 24 hours. That might sound handy to you, but the thought of all my precious tabs disappearing into the archive fills me with worryingly intense anxiety.

Read more