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New year, new browser: Opera One R3 lets you start the year with more color, sound, and organized tabs

News Provided by PR Newswire2026-01-15

New year, new browser: Opera One R3 lets you start the year with more color, sound, and organized tabs

[15-January-2026]

OSLO, Norway, Jan. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Imagine a world where all your tabs are neatly organized into Tab Islands and color-coded and your AI works in the context of each of those groups. All the while, your browser is soothing you with a custom theme and soundscape. Well, that vision is now reality and the time to up your browsing game is now.

Opera [NASDAQ: OPRA], the Norwegian browser innovator and agentic AI company, is presenting Opera One R3 today, the latest version of its flagship browser, Opera One. This update lets you get more things done than ever before: Tab Islands are Opera's intuitive alternative to tab groups: they automatically place the tabs from one browsing context into a neat Tab Island. Tab Islands can now be color-coded and named, and the faster, re-engineered Opera AI can work in the context of each one of them or in the context of each one of your tabs. Add Google services in the sidebar and a split screen with more tabs and layout options and you're better set up to achieve anything you want in 2026. Opera One R3 arrives just in time for new year's resolution season and requires absolutely zero cardio to get your life in order.

"The beginning of a new year can be overwhelming, but the time to get things done is now. We're giving you the best browser to work with as many AI tools, websites and services, all within a beautiful visual and auditory experience," said Mohamed Salah, Senior Director of Product at Opera.

Opera One R3 brings tabbed browsing to a new level
Tab Islands are one of Opera user's most beloved features, and with this release Opera is bringing them to a whole new level. Opera One R3 marks the third time Opera One is being reborn – it's Opera's tradition to gradually improve the browser and for it to be reborn each year. This version brings improvements to one of the user's favorite features Tab Islands, which are an intuitive and automated way of grouping tabs. Users can now color-code and name them as they wish. This makes it easier to quickly identify what a specific Tab Island is holding, without opening any of its tabs.

This update also introduces Opera browser AI – a rebuilt browser AI that brings a new engine architecture from Opera Neon's agentic engine that provides 20% faster responses. Opera browser AI has the capability of using the current open tab (or Tab Island) to provide answers based on the context of those tabs, meaning that the responses from the AI don't mix up contexts – users can turn this feature off in the chat.

Additionally, Opera browser AI also lets users ask questions about a YouTube video. The AI can understand what the video is about and help the user find a specific moment in it, or help them understand the topic it is discussing – making it ideal to help digest long videos that are packed with information.

The beta program is being replaced by early bird
Speaking of new year's transformations. Opera is also making changes to its beta program. Instead of a separate browser build, users can now simply switch on the early bird mode in the browser and immediately test beta features. The best motivator to toggle early bird on is the new split screen feature available in Opera One R3.

Up until now, Opera One allowed you to split the screen to view two tabs at the same time. Starting today, users will be able to view up to four tabs at the same time and in various layouts, including a horizontal and grid ones – an ideal feature for those who use the browser in big screens with high resolutions, without leaving behind the convenience for users who like to work on their laptops.

Doubling down on modular design with Google services
Opera One's design philosophy is modular design, and the R3 release is bringing more modular elements to the browser.

The browser sidebar is one of Opera users' favorite features, which gives them access to social messengers, a music player, Slack, Discord, and many others. Today, Opera users can also access Gmail and Google Calendar from the sidebar. Integrations like this add to the modular design, and in turn enhance the work in the browser, as they make it easier to have more webpages and webapps always at hand without having to switch from the current task.

New year, new browser
This wouldn't be a major Opera One update without the iconic dynamic Themes that come with it. That's why Opera One R3 is bringing three new Themes that have been carefully created to make each browsing session feel unique and engaging: Radiance, Orbit, andSonic.

Radiance comes in dark mode only and Orbit in light mode, and both Themes revolve around a sphere with the new R3 signature look. Each one of them also includes a dedicated soundscape. Finally, the Sonic Theme is a special one we created in a cross Scandinavian collaboration with Spotify. This Theme is dynamic because the background reacts to the music that users are listening to in the Opera music player (which works with various streaming services), making the browser groove to the user's music.

All of these updates make Opera the most powerful, as well as best looking and best sounding browser to enter the new year with.

About Opera
Opera is a user-centric and innovative software company focused on enabling the best possible internet browsing experience across devices. Hundreds of millions of people use Opera browsers for their unique features on mobile phones and desktop computers. Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Oslo, Norway, Opera is publicly listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol OPRA. Download Opera browsers and other Opera products at opera.com. Learn more at investor.opera.com.