What is Opera Air browser?

Working on your laptop all day can create a ton of tension and make you feel overwhelmed. Being swamped at work or having to do your taxes are just a few ways to be overly worried while using the Internet. But what if there was a browser that takes into account your mental health and tries to put you into the right mindset? Enter Opera Air, the new browser from Opera that wants you to be less stressed while searching.

Opera Air comes with built-in features designed to help you relax, from mood music to meditative exercises. Plus, it integrates with social media, which makes it a solid choice for a default browser. After testing it out, I can confidently say it helps ease my mind. Here’s why Opera Air could be the perfect way to unwind — even in the middle of a busy day.

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Set-up is simple

You can choose the background that you want

There’s a light and breezy feeling to the Opera Air browser — no pun intended. The setup is simple — you just need to download it and select your settings. You can opt for multiple backgrounds, which are all nature-based. Once you pick, you can choose to import data from Chrome, Firefox, or Edge, making it easy to transition to Opera Air as your default browser.

The minimalist design doesn’t feel overcrowded, even when you have a million tabs open. The preset bookmarks anytime you open the browser are meant to keep you in the right mindset, as Headspace.com, Calm.com, Mindful.org, are among those listed. Opera Air feels like it wants you to take a step back from the cluttered hustle and bustle of everyday life while you’re using it.

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The music instills focus

I love choosing between the audio options

On the left-hand side of the browser, there’s a small icon bar filled with different features. The top option is the Boosts. If you’re like me and love listening to lo-fi music, spa playlists, classical music, and other relaxing types of sound while you’re working, Boosts is definitely for you. It lets you pick the mood that you’re in and plays music accordingly. The list to choose from is:

• Creativity Boost
• Energized Focus
• Deep Relaxation
• Dream Recall
• Emotional Navigation
• Focused Calm
• Stress Relief
• Positive Mood
• Light Meditation
• Mental Clarity
• Motivation Boost
• Analytical Thinking
• Energized Alert
• High Performance
• Peak Concentration
• Learning Enhancement
• Heightened Awareness
• Cognitive Enhancement
• Optimal Brain Function

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There are even volume adjustments that aren’t just focused on how loud the music is. You can opt to adjust the binaural volume and the ambient volume as well to give you a more complete audio experience.

Take a break

Opera Air wants you to relax

Below Boosts is Take a Break. It’s a feature that actually offers you a distraction from your work and browsing on a silver platter — it reminds you to take a break every 60 to 90 minutes to keep your body and mind fresh. It even suggests breathing exercises (from three to six minutes), neck exercises (from four to ten minutes), meditation (7-13 minutes), or a full body scan (8-15 minutes).

Clicking on any of these options opens a new window and guides you through the break step by step. You can customize settings, choose a male or female voice, adjust the duration and intensity of the exercise, and more. If you want, you can turn on your camera and let the browser guide you through the movements while you see yourself on screen. Subtitles make it easy to follow along and anticipate what’s coming next — I found this especially helpful for staying on track.

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AI is built in

Opera Air Aria is here to help

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The feature below Take a break is Aria, Opera Air’s AI chatbot. It runs on multiple large language models, including those from OpenAI and Google, making it similar to ChatGPT and Gemini. You can use it by entering prompts to generate content or answer questions, though a disclaimer at the top notes that it may provide inaccurate or misleading responses (which is important to remember when you’re using it). But, like Gemini and ChatGPT, I did find it useful.

If you log into Opera Air by creating an account or linking to your Google account, you can unlock more features with Aria. This includes AI image generation, the ability to upload a photo and have Aria tell you more about it, and more. While I’m not the biggest user of AI chatbots, there is a time and place for it — and, being able to get extended research without having to search many Google pages is super helpful.

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Opera Air helps you stay up to date

You can sync up different apps to Opera Air, too. That includes WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, VK, TikTok, and X. You just need to log in to each of those platforms and sync them with Opera Air, and the individual app icons will show up in the menu. By clicking on them, your feeds will populate on the left side of the browser.

This provides you with a smaller view of your feed, which lets you scroll through social media while continuing with work. It’s an excellent way to avoid picking up your phone over and over when you’re trying to be productive. Not only is Opera Air looking out for your mindfulness, but it is also minimizing the need to be on multiple devices at once. Social media isn’t the best environment for mental health, so you can quickly minimize them whenever you want.

More features include the ability to add speed dial for phone calls, pinboards to store ideas, multiple workspaces if you want to separate different browser layouts for different projects, and a number of extensions you can add to the sidebar. When it comes to searching, it works just like any other browser — type in a URL or a few keywords to pull up results. The streamlined design and conscious, mindful features make this a browser I want to come back to.

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