Opera has a new browser in the works that's designed to help you focus, balance your life, and reduce stress. Those are bold claims from a web browser, but Opera has included several features in its new "Opera Air" browser that focus on mindfulness. Opera Air is now in early access, though anyone can download it. My early impression is that Opera Air is a solid everyday browser that has some genuinely useful features for mindfulness and mental health.
Browsers are among the most used and most popular apps on just about any platform. Generally, Google Chrome dominates when it comes to browser market share, though Apple's Safari has a respectable number of users. With Chrome at 67.05% market share and Safari at 17.96% according to StatCounter, that leaves all the other browsers to fight for the final 15%. Developers have to find ways to make browsers stand out, such as focusing on security or having exclusive browsing features.
Opera took a different approach when making Opera Air. While the app has the general browsing features you'd expect, such as an ad blocker, a built-in VPN, and general compatibility with the web, its standout features center around mindfulness.
Opera Air places shortcuts to smart exercises, meditation, and "Boosts" within the browser. Those Boosts have garnered the most attention from what I've seen. Opera Air has a library of audio with sounds designed to "stimulate different brain waves." Binaural beats, which use tones of slightly different frequencies to make you perceive a third frequency, are key to the Boosts.
I'm not a medical expert, so I can't tell you the effect on the body of a "Theta 6Hz" audio file designed to boost creativity or any of the other included Boosts within Opera Air. As a layman, the Boosts seem to work as advertised. I found the "Creativity" Boost to be relaxing without lulling me to sleep. A handy feature for Boosts is that you can customize different aspects of the sounds, such as increasing the volume of the binaural sound or ambient noise.
Of course, Opera does not have exclusive rights to neck exercises, guided meditations, or audio that stimulates different brain waves. But the browser brings those features into one interface, meaning you don't have to search for things across the web and have a bunch of windows open. It's a unique approach that has turned heads. My colleague Stephen Warwick, who writes for TechRadar, has already decided to ditch Chrome in favor of Opera Air, at least when it comes to personal browsing. Our parent company relies on Chrome heavily, so Warwick and I need to keep it on our systems for professional use.
