Opera is releasing their new Web browser for Android called Opera Touch. As the name suggests, new design and features all aim towards mobile users' preferences. And one of the most common preferences this target group has is the ability to use the app with only one hand.
The first new feature that pops out once you start using Opera Touch, is the search bar that is instantly activated and ready for input. It is a reasonable feature to have since most of the time we are using our phones to browse the internet when we are in an urgent need of a certain information.
Once you start scrolling up, a new feature pops out again. It is a quick menu at the bottom of the app which once pressed, opens up your tabs with options to refresh, stop or open up a new tab. And since it is positioned at the bottom of the app, it's easily reachable with your fingers. With other browsers, you need to click at the top of the screen to do the same thing and you can hardly do that with one hand on larger smartphones.
As The Verge reports, another new feature, although not so ground-breaking, is the ability to send your tabs from a phone to computer or vice versa. There is an option called continue from a computer that does that automatically. But you can do it manually with another new feature called the "Flow" which stores all the tabs that you are sharing across the platforms. Of course, it is predicated on the idea that you are using Opera web browsers on all of your devices.
In the end, the question remains, are all of these new features enough for users to change their default browser to Opera Touch? It all comes down to the fact that users will have to get rid of their synchronized bookmarks and transfer them into the new browser, which is most of the time a real drag, and never ends up perfectly. At this point, people are pretty much committed to one service and you really need to bring a lot to the table to make them move all of their stuff from one place to another.
You can try Opera Touch for Android now. A version for Apple devices should be released soon.