Norwegian software company Opera has updated its Chromium-based Android web browser this week.
Opera for Android 22.0.1485 (to credit it with its full version number) debuts a number of improvements designed to make the browser easier to use.
Chief amongst the changes is an improved tab management feature. Open tabs can now be closed using a simple ‘swipe up’ gesture from the tab manager view. To accompany this Opera has added a menu button to enable recently closed tabs to be reopened quickly.
In-browser downloading benefits from ‘proper resuming’ of failed or paused tasks, while Off-Road Mode once again supports the downloading of large files without issue.
Opera’s Discover feature, which surfaces various news and media content from around the web, adds gestures to allow swiping left and right to move on to the next article in the given story.
Lastly, a security issue that could have allowed rogue sites to trick the browser into showing the wrong URL — spoofing — has been fixed.
Full changelog:
- Swipe gestures in tab manager
- Re-open recently closed tabs
- Discovery section tweaks
- Download resumption
- Fixed issue with downloading bigger files
- Chromium version 35
- Stability and performance improvements
Download Opera for Android 22
This release continues to prove why the Opera browser is such a popular standout alternative. Fast, featured and with a choice of UI layouts (including ‘classic’ and ‘tablet’), the browser is well suited to impress anyone not sold on Chrome’s own mobile performance.
Opera for Android 22 is based on Chromium 35. It is available to download for free from Google Play or as a direct APK download from Opera.