[Review] What’s New and Changed in Opera One R2 Web Browser

Opera team is working on a major update for the Opera web browser which is scheduled to release later this year and will be known as Opera One R2. The version number of Opera One R2 will be 113.0. R2 stands for reimagined, refresh or revision.

Opera has started releasing testing versions of Opera One R2 to users for testing purposes. Interested users can download and install Opera One R2 Developer version in their devices and start testing the browser.

In this article, we’ll review the upcoming Opera One R2 web browser in details and will share information about all the new features and changes present in the web browser.

Opera One R2 New Theme with Dynamic Backgrounds and Sound Events

Opera One R2 will be based on the existing Opera One web browser but will come with many UI changes and enhancements.

Following screenshot shows Opera One R2 web browser running in one of our Windows 11 devices:

At the moment, you’ll not notice major UI changes as the work is under progress but many UI changes and updates are going to happen in coming months. Future versions of Opera One R2 will feature new redesigned theme containing dynamic or animated backgrounds and sound events.

Users will also hear sounds while interacting with the browser UI. The dynamic wallpapers and sound events will be customizable and users will be able to turn on/off them using Opera Settings page.

Following screenshot shows Opera One R2 in Dark theme UI for your viewing pleasure:

Aria AI Integration in Opera One R2 Toolbar

Opera One R2 will come with lots of improvements to the built-in Aria AI. Users will be able to generate images using simple words. Aria AI will also be able to read text answers out loud.

Users can access Aria AI by pressing Ctrl+/ hotkeys together. A new dedicated toolbar button to launch Aria AI has also been added to Opera One R2 toolbar. Following screenshot shows “Ask Aria AI” toolbar button added to Opera One R2:

If users don’t like the new button addition to the toolbar, they can disable or remove the Aria AI button from the toolbar using Opera Settings page.

I found a new toggle option “Aria in the toolbar” present under AI services section on Opera One R2 Settings page as shown in following screenshot:

Users can turn on/off the toggle option to show/hide Aria AI toolbar button in Opera One R2 web browser.

New Split Screen Feature to Open Tabs Side-by-Side in Opera One R2

Opera team has also implemented a very useful feature called “Split Screen” in Opera One R2 web browser which will help users in accessing two tabs side-by-side on a single browser screen.

Following screenshot shows two tabs running side-by-side using split screen mode in Opera One R2 web browser:

To open a tab in split screen mode, you just need to drag a tab downwards and Opera will allow you to drop the tab on left or right side of the split screen alongside the current tab.

At the moment, only drag-n-drop method has been implemented to launch Split Screen mode. In future, more options such as context menu option, toolbar button will be added to access split screen feature.

A new option to enable or disable split screen feature has been added to Opera Settings page as shown in following screenshot:

So users will be able to turn on or off the new split screen feature in their browser according to their requirements.

Built-in or Native Translate Feature in Opera One R2 Web Browser

Opera team has also added and enabled a native translation feature to Opera One R2 web browser. As soon as you open a webpage which is showing content in different language, Opera suggests you to translate the webpage in your default language as shown in following screenshot:

You can select any desire output language to translate the webpage using the drop-down box.

A new option to turn on/off the built-in translate feature is also present on Opera Settings page as shown in following screenshot:

Users can also launch the translate feature manually by right-clicking on a webpage and selecting translate option from the context menu.

Improvements to Multimedia in Opera One R2 Web Browser

Opera users will also see many improvements to multimedia components in Opera One R2 such as:

• Pause or skip a song using sidebar player button
• Video pop-out or PIP improvements
• Automatic pausing of the music when you play a video or have a call

How to Download and Install Opera One R2 Developer Version?

If you want to test drive the upcoming Opera One R2 web browser right now in your computer, you can download and install its Developer version from following article:

[Opera Beta / Developer Update] Opera One R2 Developer Released

Don’t worry! The Developer version will not replace your existing Opera stable version. It’ll install in a different directory and will create a separate browser profile. You’ll be able to open and run both stable and Developer versions of Opera side-by-side.

We’ll update this review article regularly whenever a new feature or change is discovered in Opera One R2 web browser. So keep checking the article to learn about the new features and updates present in the upcoming Opera One R2 version.

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