Opera's iOS Browser Introduces Aria: Your New AI Companion for Enhanced Web Browsing

Opera is enhancing its iOS web browser with an AI assistant named Aria. In an announcement today, the company revealed that Opera for iOS will now feature Aria, a sophisticated AI product developed in partnership with OpenAI, fully integrated into the browser and available at no cost to all users.

Previously, Aria was introduced on Opera’s desktop and Android platforms, where it has already gained over 1 million users. With this new iOS update, Aria is now accessible on all major platforms, including Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS.

Using Aria is optional; users can choose to opt-in to experience the AI service without any mandatory requirement. Once opted in, Aria offers a range of intelligent insights, ideas, and responsive voice commands. To access Aria, users need to log in to their Opera account, which can be created directly within the app if they don’t already have one.

Aria operates on Opera’s proprietary “Composer” infrastructure, linking with OpenAI’s GPT technology. This connection enables Aria to engage with multiple AI models and enhances the AI’s capabilities for search and various AI services, including planned expansions into generative AI.

Similar to other AI-driven search tools, Opera on iOS features a chatbot-like interface where users can ask questions and receive responses seamlessly, eliminating the need for traditional web searches. Users can access the AI assistant from the “More” menu (the far right tab on the bottom navigation bar) in the Opera iOS app. Additionally, they can choose to speak their inquiries by tapping the microphone icon.

Following Aria’s milestone of reaching 1 million users last month, Opera highlighted the positive impact of AI on user engagement metrics. "The initial adoption of Aria has been encouraging, and we’re equally pleased with the high engagement quality among users," shared Opera co-CEO Lin Song. "We are witnessing increased total time spent, including higher searches and page views per session."

Aria isn’t Opera’s first venture into AI; the company previously launched AI Prompts, enabling users to quickly engage with generative AI for tasks like summarizing articles, crafting tweets, or generating content from selected text.

Opera for iOS is available for free download and includes a variety of useful features, such as built-in ad-blocking, a free VPN, tracking protection, a crypto wallet, and private browsing options.