Although there are many AI browsers on the market, the latest version of Opera with the Aria AI assistant offers the least irritating, fastest, lightest, and most comfortable experience for desktop. If you are a Windows user looking for an AI-powered browser, here's why Opera Aria is worth considering if you want to switch from Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge .
How does Opera Aria differ from the regular Opera browser?
Opera Aria is an 'active AI browser' that provides proactive support to users by anticipating their needs and performing tasks instead of just displaying information. Common active browsing tasks include summarizing web pages, creating new content based on prompts, generating images, and creating new ideas, such as in Compose mode .
This approach differs from traditional browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or even the standard Opera browser, which may have some AI features, but do not embody the concept of active browsing, requiring users to perform most tasks manually.
Until recently, Aria was only available by invitation, then early access. Now, after its widespread release, Aria is available for download. Aria does not require creating a separate account and is a fully integrated, non-removable feature of the Opera browser. There are many reasons why it is suitable for Windows desktop users.
AI web browsing focuses on the sidebar.
A standout feature of Opera Aria is its built-in sidebar, which you can open and close depending on your browsing workflow. It's an unobtrusive agentic browser, fulfilling a core criterion of such browsers: Always hidden unless called upon to perform a task.
Although all AI activities are confined to the sidebar, you can access it multiple times across different tabs without any lag. The sidebar remembers your conversation and integrates it gradually into each new tab. You can modify the chat window width, and a simple click will dim the Aria chat window from your view.
A common complaint from Windows users about previous versions of Opera was that the buttons were harder to click due to the small click area. With Opera's Aria, this issue has been resolved. You can easily access the sidebar multiple times whenever you need results from the AI. In addition, there are several other ways to interact with Aria.
Access Opera Aria using a keyboard shortcut.
Clicking on the sidebar is helpful. But for a true AI browsing experience, use the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + / (slash). A quick chat interface called 'Aria Command Line' will open. Mac users can use Cmd + / for the same effect.
To learn more about any topic on a website, use the Tab button. In Page Context mode , you can see the entire content of a webpage. If you click below, there will be a Summarize button to give a quick summary. Writing mode lets you create a piece of text, for example, a comment on a blog post or filling out a form in an online application.
The fact that Aria can collect information about browsing activity might raise security concerns. After all, this is a known issue with Comet . However, the Opera browser has some of the best security standards for desktop users.
Stronger AI privacy terms
Unlike many other AI tools, your browsing history or any other personal data is not used to train this AI model. Only limited information that the user chooses to share is displayed in the chat window.
Conversations in Aria are stored for 30 days, after which they are deleted. This information is also anonymized. For best results, choose not to save any chat history using Google , Apple, or Facebook. Press the Backspace button to view chat history from multiple accounts without logging in. Alternatively, you can go to Settings to turn off Google suggestions .
You can also enhance security through Opera browser settings. From there, click on Privacy & security -> Privacy Consent Settings . Here, you can turn off location and personalized content.
Aria can control tabs in Opera.
One secret feature and benefit of Aria is that it's the first AI assistant that lets you manipulate all the tabs in your browser. To do this, you need to switch to the 'Aria Command Line' interface using the shortcut mentioned earlier. Then, you can manipulate the tabs simply by typing naturally, for example, 'group tabs'.
You can use natural language to perform many other actions, such as closing the current tab, pinning tabs, and saving all tabs to your browsing history. With a little practice, you can also use voice commands.