Meet Opera Air, the web browser that wants you to disconnect

Most digital platforms are all about getting us to spend more time connected. Opera’s new web browser gives a good impression of being a tool that wants to do the opposite: encouraging us to take breaks from browsing.

With a sleek, minimalist design, Opera Air has the UI of a meditation app. In fact, it is a mediation app. Along with music for creative inspiration, it provides guided meditation and breathing exercises (see our pick of the best UI design tools if you’re working on your own product designs).

Opera Air has a transparent UI with pretty frosted glass accents. It looks like a PC desktop. When asked to choose a wallpaper, I was tempted by a soothing image of a giant bubble floating over a wilder-looking version of Windows’ Bliss, but decided it reminded me of The Prisoner, so I opted for the Caspar David Friedrich-esque image of a figure on mountain bathed in mindful light. Inspiring. There’s even an annoying motivational quote at the bottom.

But the real revolution with Opera Air sits in the tool bar on the left. The browser takes the mindfulness concept beyond its UI design and applies it to the whole UX, adding a batch of unique features (for a web browser). It has a break mode with four guided “smart exercises’: breathing, neck exercises, meditation and a “full body scan.” With the option of a male or female voice. They can range from three to 15. minutes and can be set on a timer or taken when desired. “Gentle browser reminders” encourage you to take a break and recharge.

The breathing exercises are intended to help reduce stress while the neck exercises, which include a 3D model, aim to soothe sore neck muscles and improve flexibility. The full body scan is a form of meditation that involves focusing attention on different parts of the body and the sensations that arise.

There are also ‘boosts’, which are supposed to help focus and creativity. These take the form of binaural beats, in which different frequencies are played to each ear. Opera even claims one of them can help users recall dreams better.

I’d like to say I tested out all the relaxation features to the full, but I lost patience after the first few seconds, and Alex, my in-browser personal breathing coach sounded way too smug. I’m clearly a lost cause. The browser does look very pretty though, and it’s easy to setup and flick between two workspaces. Opera Air also has an AI assistant, Aria, an in-build ad blocker and a free VPN.

Opera is now majority owned by the Chinese company Kunlun. Previous browsers have been criticised for bugs and updates causing things to break, but some people like its tab-management tools.

Opera AI is free to download and use from the Opera website.