Opera’s iOS web browser gains an AI companion with Aria
Opera’s web browser app for iOS is getting an AI assistant. The company announced today that Opera for iOS will now include Aria, its browser AI product built in collaboration with OpenAI, integrated directly into the web browser, and free for all users.
The AI solution had previously launched on Opera for desktop and Opera for Android, where it has now topped 1 million users. With the addition of iOS support, Aria is available across all major platforms, including Mac, Windows, Linux, Android and now iOS, the company notes.
Using Aria, however, is up to the individual user. If you want to experience the AI service, you can opt in — it’s not forced on everyone. After doing so, Aria will provide various intelligent insights and ideas, and responsive voice commands. Users will also have to log into their Opera account to use Aria. If they don’t have one, they can create an account from the app.
Aria itself is based on Opera’s own “Composer” infrastructure and connects with OpenAI’s GPT technology. Composer is what will allow Aria to connect to multiple AI models and in the future will expand the AI’s capabilities in search and AI services, including further moves into generative AI and others Opera is planning to unveil at a later date.
Like other AI search companions, Opera on iOS has a chatbot-like interface so you can ask it questions and receive its responses, as an alternative to searching the web for answers. The AI is available from the “more” menu (far right tab on the bottom navigation bar) in the Opera iOS app. You can also speak your questions to Aria by tapping the microphone button instead of typing, if you choose.
After announcing Aria’s 1 million user milestone last month, the company touted how adding AI had impacted its other metrics.
“As encouraging as the initial adoption of Aria has been, we are equally pleased with the quality of the users’ early engagement with the AI tool,” said Opera co-CEO Lin Song at the time. “We are also seeing a lift in total time spent, with increased searches and pageviews per session.”
Aria isn’t the first AI solution from Opera. The company previously pioneered AI Prompts, which allowed users to quickly initiate conversations with generative AI services to shorten or explain articles, generate tweets, or request relevant content based on the highlighted text.
Opera for iOS is a free download and includes other helpful features like built-in ad blocking, a free VPN, tracking prevention, a crypto wallet, private browsing support and more.