Browser maker Opera has released an iOS version of Opera One, a variant of its AI-infused desktop browser that complies with the strictures of Apple's mobile ecosystem.
It runs atop Apple's WebKit rendering engine, per Apple's platform requirements, and thus shares some similarities with all the other iOS browsers that can only use WebKit.
In theory, browser makers can now offer an iOS browser without WebKit using Apple's Browser Engine Entitlement under the EU's Digital Markets Act, though we're unaware of any major browser vendor that has met the demanding conditions and managed to do so yet.
According to Opera, the DMA has been helpful, leading to something of a user windfall, thanks to its requirement that Apple present iPhone users with a browser choice screen rather than just assuming they want to use Apple's own Safari browser.
"Opera's pre-DMA survey showed that 91 percent of Europeans want more choice and transparency when selecting a browser," the company said in a statement. "Reflecting this demand, Opera for iOS has experienced a surge in popularity following the DMA's implementation, highlighted by 63 percent growth in new users across the EU in the first month that the ballot screen began to appear."
Other browser vendors like Brave, Firefox, and Vivaldi have noted similar user uplift, thanks to regulatory intervention.
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Opera One for iOS features a revised navigation style that puts the search bar at the bottom of the screen, which the company claims facilitates one-handed mobile usage. The search experience has also been adjusted to include predictive search suggestions while typing a query, in order to complete queries faster with less input. And accessing the search bar has been made easier – it can now be called up with a swipe.
In place of the old newsfeed is a start page carousel with news, live scores, and product tips – a curious thing for the company to mention given that Opera One for iOS also features a native, built-in ad blocker.
Like its desktop-focused sibling, Opera One for iOS offers access to AI services. Aria is described as "a free, unlimited built-in browser AI" that offers "up-to-date results from the web, plus the ability to assist in a range of tasks such as information retrieval, text or code generation, and product inquiries."
Aria supports voice input, so queries can be spoken rather than typed. And it has been connected to Google's Imagen2 image generation model, so Opera One users can create images based on prompts.
An Opera spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request to clarify how much of Aria's processing for iOS occurs on-device and how much gets processed in the cloud. Opera One for desktop supports around 150 local LLMs, in addition to cloud-based models.
The inclusion of AI as a marquee browser feature may have seemed forward-looking in 2023 when Opera began the machine learning injections, but that's less obvious today. Recent research suggests that the inclusion of the term "artificial intelligence" in a product description increased feelings of mistrust. ®