Opera getting closer to public build with Touch Bar support

Feb 24, 2017 09:21 GMT  ·  By

Opera 44 has been promoted to the beta channel, coming with support for Apple’s new Touch Bar feature that’s exclusively available on the new-generation MacBook Pro.

With Touch Bar support, Opera browser can bring some of the essential controls right on the keyboard of the new MacBook Pro, enhancing browsing, especially when working in full screen. When running the browser in full-screen mode, buttons like the home, back, and tabs are no longer displayed, but thanks to Touch Bar support, users can get all these options right on the keyboard.

As compared to Apple’s Safari, which obviously supports the Touch Bar already, Opera replaces website thumbnails with color-coded tabs, which should help users figure out which page is which more easily.

“Opera 44 is the first browser besides Safari to introduce support for the Touch Bar. We use it for some common actions such as going back, focusing the address field, and navigating through Speed Dials and tabs. Unlike Safari, Opera displays icons and colors of tabs instead of their screenshots in the Touch Bar, which gives users a better overview of their tabs,” Opera says in an announcement today.

New Credential Management API and known issues

Additionally, Opera 44 also comes with a new Credential Management API, a feature that boosts security and gives users more control over their usernames and passwords for websites they load.

“[It gives] users a simpler sign-in process across devices and provides websites with more control over the usage of credentials. The website can use password-based sign-ins via this API. Once logged in, users will be automatically signed back into a site, even if their session has expired,” the firm says.

This version includes several known issues, and that’s perfectly alright given the fact that it’s still in beta. For example, Mac users will get a darker tab bar, no search switcher in private mode dropdown, and a broken animation on the bookmarks bar.

Of course, all of these are supposed to be fixed before the final version goes live, but in the meantime, you can download Opera beta for Windows, Linux, and Mac using these links.