Mobile Browser Version
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@lemonjuice The old Opera team, founded by the same guy who founded Vivaldi, obtained most of its usership and therefore most of its income (and its resulting ability to expand to over 200 programming engineers) on mobile platforms. Mobile usage is much more widespread in the world today than desktop usage.
While it's true that Vivaldi will never abandon or de-emphasize desktop, they would have to be insane to ignore mobile.
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@Ayespy said in Mobile Browser Version:
Mobile usage is much more widespread in the world today than desktop usage.
While it's true that Vivaldi will never abandon or de-emphasize desktop, they would have to be insane to ignore mobile.
I don't see anything insane in ignoring mobile if the team is small. The mobile world already has many browsers to choose from - what could Vivaldi possibly offer to its users on mobile? Most of its unique options are not important nor even applicable on a mobile phone: themes, tab options, mouse gestures, side panels, UI customizations, etc. Spending lots of man hours to develop a browser that is only very slightly better than its competition doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Vivaldi had (or still has?) plans to develop a desktop mail client, which I think is a much better plan, because the landscape of good mail clients is shrinking more and more. This is where Vivaldi could offer something unique - this is a niche waiting to be filled as opposed to the saturated market of mobile browsers.
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@lemonjuice said in Mobile Browser Version:
I don't see anything insane in ignoring mobile if the team is small.
The insane part about it is that it prevents future growth - keeping the team always small and therefore limited in capabilities.
what could Vivaldi possibly offer to its users on mobile?
The same kinds of things the old Presto Opera Mobile offered before the new Opera Mobile became an ad platform. In other words, a more desktop-like and less limited/crippled/cramped experience. So far, no one else is getting an expanded experience right. It will also be the ONLY browser that can sync with Vivaldi desktop. Thousands of users are already craving this.
Most of its unique options are not important nor even applicable on a mobile phone: themes, tab options, mouse gestures, side panels, UI customizations, etc. Spending lots of man hours to develop a browser that is only very slightly better than its competition doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
The original Opera mobile (and therefore conceivably Vivaldi Mobile) was not only slightly better. It was miles ahead.
Vivaldi had (or still has?) plans to develop a desktop mail client, which I think is a much better plan, because the landscape of good mail clients is shrinking more and more. This is where Vivaldi could offer something unique - this is a niche waiting to be filled as opposed to the saturated market of mobile browsers.
Vivaldi has a desktop mail client. It will be released to the public when it's ready. The mobile team and the mail team do not intersect, and do not draw resources from each other. It's not one of the other.
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Maybe you're right. I've been too concerned that the desktop browser might be hindered by the development of the mobile version. I know sync is important to many users and I am aware that all current mobile browsers have some serious deficiencies - they are only good enough for most users.
Glad to hear the mail client hasn't been abandoned.
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Oh no, is it true that there won't be an iOS version?
Why do I want a mobile version? Because I want to sync various data, especially the auto-generated passwords.
I've found Vivaldi's auto password generator excellent. I want to start to use it extensively if/when Vivaldi has a mobile version. (If the auto generated passwords aren't available on my smartphone, that'd be a big, big problem.)
But then, that would mean I would have to preclude iPhones and iPads from my future choices. . . .
. . . so, it seems that I will have to commit to 1Password or something similar.
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@ryofurue There is likely to be an iOS version . . . in time.
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So what about low-end solution just to make Sync available on mobile? Bare-bone browser + tabs + Sync. No colors, just a little settings nothing fancy. Something like DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser, not really perfect but does work.
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@jrucki said in Mobile Browser Version:
So what about low-end solution just to make Sync available on mobile? Bare-bone browser + tabs + Sync. No colors, just a little settings nothing fancy. Something like DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser, not really perfect but does work.
Perfect. It's what I thought recently. Maybe add also scrollable tabs like tablet browsers do (personally I hate to tap some button to switch to another tab). And except it nothing more needed.
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Hello. I also am willing to do alpha/beta testing (Android). Is there an appropriate place to let the devs know?
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If current patterns are adhered to, pre-alpha and alpha testing will be internal, using the present team of testers. If more internal testers are wanted, that will be made known. Beta testing, as now, will be open to anyone willing to put an app with no quality assurances on their Android phone.
Volunteer Mod and tester on Windows 11 Home X64, i7-13700 @ 5.4 GHz turbo; Intel UHD 770 graphics; 1TB NV2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD; 32 GB DDR4-3200 RAM. Community Code of Conduct
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@Ayespy said in Mobile Browser Version:
If current patterns are adhered to, pre-alpha and alpha testing will be internal, using the present team of testers. If more internal testers are wanted, that will be made known. Beta testing, as now, will be open to anyone willing to put an app with no quality assurances on their Android phone.
does is mean that we are not even at pre-alpha yet?
MacOS - waiting for iOS
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@TalGarik That's right. It is being tested only by the Team and Jon. Internal testers do not have access yet. Still, it is being actively developed.
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@TalGarik It means it will take forever. We had 3 big feature promises practically from the start: Sync, Mail and Mobile. Only Sync is out after 4 years, and Sync is incomplete. That's just to put it in context. Nothing can be done about that, the manpower just isn't there. But I do worry, features are added regularly and these features break with chromium updates – at some point in time simply maintaining the status quo of Vivaldi could take up all development time. The only thing that would help are more users, which would pay more developers. But you only get more users with basics like Sync and a mobile browser already existing… It's a vicious circle. At the same time we are completely left in the dark about number of active Vivaldi users and estimation of arrival of critical features (active development and improving every day doesn't cut it for anyone, especially when you read the same thing for years).
Well, there's nothing to do but wait and hope for the best. What keeps me with Vivaldi personally is the pretty UI and the openness concerning custom modifications.
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@jrucki said in Mobile Browser Version:
So what about low-end solution just to make Sync available on mobile? Bare-bone browser + tabs + Sync. No colors, just a little settings nothing fancy. Something like DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser, not really perfect but does work.
Doesn't look like it would happen anytime soon, but would love if it did. I'm currently on Firefox 52 ESR as mozilla is doing everything do discourage me from updating and mobile sync is the only thing keeping me from switching to Vivaldi.
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nightly apk?
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@ignatgrz I have also been waiting for the Android/mobile version for a long time, but I still find that Vivaldi is so good/brilliant that I never switch back to Opera or other browsers anymore.
Vivaldi rocks
(but I still hope that the Android version will be released soon
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@jrucki said in Mobile Browser Version:
So what about low-end solution just to make Sync available on mobile? Bare-bone browser + tabs + Sync. No colors, just a little settings nothing fancy. Something like DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser, not really perfect but does work.
it would have been interesting to get a reply from Jon or from the team about this.
I mean, the numbers are out there, mobile has more traffic than desktop, how can you promote a browser in 2019 without a mobile version?
Four years ago when Vivaldi came out I used it way more than I use it now, as much as I appreciate some exclusive features of the desktop version, in 2019 I cannot live without sync between desktop and mobile, so Firefox is my main browser and I use Vivaldi only to do some work where its panels come in handy. And I have stopped promoting Vivaldi with family and friends, since no one I know will not even consider a browser which hasn't a mobile version. -
It's a pity that there is no application for the android: c Even the Brave browser has its mobile application with a synchronization and here nothing happens. Maybe some particulars? Maybe it is possible to speed up the process of creating this app?
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@MattSolo45 It could be sped up if development of the desktop product stopped or was greatly slowed, and every member of the very small team turned their attention to mobile.
Vivaldi is unique among Chromium/Blink-based browsers (like Brave) in that the actual browser/UI portion is written from scratch and based on web technologies (which is what makes it possible to make it feature-rich) while Brave and others rip off their UI from Chromium and modify it slightly. Thus, they are chained to the features that come built-in in Chromium for the most part.
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@MattSolo45 It's definitely a problem, but I think I found the solution – I'm gonna freeze myself until the Android version is ready. First I'm gonna make some space in the freezer, then I will eat a jug of strawberry ice cream and gulp down one litre of ice cold high quality vodka (sweet dreams and preservation) and jump right into my chilly resting place. I won't care how long it takes, when the Android version is ready I'm gonna receive mail from Vivaldi, because I signed up for the newsletter, this will trigger the unfreezing process and I will awake to Vivaldi heaven.
