Vivaldi for iOS
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Thanks for the welcome! It's been a couple weeks of using Vivaldi and so far, so good. Though I have to say it's not that different from using say, Chrome, which makes sense since Vivaldi is based on Chromium. This is a good thing since it should make it easier for people like me to adopt Vivaldi. Of course, there are tons of features like screen capture, the ability to move tabs, split-screen tabs, and web panels, that put Vivaldi in a different class.
Anyway, back to the iOS "issue". It didn't even occur to me to send links to myself - I am often accused of over analyzing/complicating things, and rightly so. I will try it out, especially since you suggested using Signal, something else that has piqued my interest since I decided to move away from Google (and Facebook for that matter) as much as possible. It's also good to know that Vivaldi's bookmarks tool is robust, as I've already imported all my bookmarks from Chrome to Vivaldi and will be using Vivaldi as my primary bookmark storage location moving forward.
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@armmat eh, for the most part, people who say we overanalyze things are just less rigorous thinkers. There are important exceptions, of course, like matters of the heart, but technical matters rarely can be overanalyzed, in my opinion.
Signal is great, multiplatform -- meaning iOS, Android, Windows, Linux & mac. To send stuff between your phone install & you computer there is a conversation labeled "Note to Self" which I find extremely useful. I'll also use it for drafting messages that I don't want to send prematurely to someone else, or save a draft to send later.
Vivaldi is certainly robust when it comes to managing bookmarks, its one area where Vivaldi is superior to all other browsers in my opinion. I've got over a hundred thousand of them, so it obviously scales. On the desktop I recommend using the Bookmark Manager (which is in a tab) and the Bookmark Panel for doing organization & other maintenance. But I'll leave it at that so as to not derail this thread too much. If you have bookmark questions start up a new thread and I'm sure you'll get help, feel free to tag me in it if you want to get my attention.
Happy Surfing
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I've been following this topic for a while as seamless syncing is one of the things I consider a needed function, so not having an iOS Vivaldi port is basically a deal breaker in me using the desktop browser.
I noticed a lot of comments regarding the UI needing to be redrawn in iOS - because it's rendered in html/css/js on other platforms. I don't think this is a correct statement. Most Chromium based iOS ports completely recycle the UI components used on Android. If you look at the new MS Edge, Brave they all use HTML/CSS based UI's on iOS.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that there is no additional development work needed to make the iOS port, but the idea that a UI has to be rebuilt from scratch and written in Swift is not correct.
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I know, I can hear the groans already but I have to ask. When, oh when will there be an iOS version?
I have been using Vivaldi for its specific features for years now and have always yearned for the ability to have the Vivaldi browser on my portable devices as well. If I could have the continuity of the same browser on all my devices I would definitely switch to Vivaldi only. Because I cant I only use Vivaldi sporadically on my Mac's. I doubt I am alone in this so it was with some disappointment that I saw an Android version released recently. I know it is difficult to fulfil Apple's crazy requirements but if Chrome can get away with it anyone can. Please let me know if it's at least on the drawing board.
modedit changed title related to content
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@Annerod "On the drawing board" is a broad term. I've no word whether a dev has mapped out a path to getting it done, but I know a fair deal of spitballing on it has occurred. But it's nearly the same magnitude of project as building the original version of Vivaldi for desktop. Essentially none of the work that has already been done can be re-purposed to work on iOS. So the answer to your question is, no one really knows.
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@Annerod said in New old Question:
I know, I can hear the groans already but I have to ask.
You really don't need to ask again. All you need to do is search the forum:
Never say “Never,” but IMO we won't ever see an iOS version. Vivaldi is too small, and its rate of growth is slow. Five years on we're still waiting for the built-in email client, which has been In Progress since the first technical preview. Vivaldi for iOS is not even on the starting blocks yet.
This interview with Jón is quite recent
Maybe buy an Android phone? That would surely be much less frustrating than waiting five years or longer in the hope for something that might not happen at all.
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Every time I complain about something concerning one of my phones, or every time my daughter wants me to do something that's only available on iOS, she says I should buy an iPhone. But due to their lack of ability to install Vivaldi, I would not consider an iOS device - that, and the fact that they are unjustifiably expensive.
I can do whatever I want with my Android devices, and my daughters can only do what Apple lets them do.
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Read this post and watch the interview with Vivaldi boss Jon von Tetzchner...he also talks about an iOS version in this video:
https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/46291/interview-with-jon-von-tetzchner
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@Ayespy Thanks for your insight -- I understand what you're saying... but it begs the question...?:
How is Google able to have Chrome on the iOS store? Certainly they didn't build their browser anew with an Apple engine?
Its been on the wish-list for awhile -- and STILL a very real desire.
Make an iOS version and Vivaldi could be my default cross-platform browser (I loathe Android OS!) -
@ioz said in Question about iOS before switching.:
Certainly they didn't build their browser anew with an Apple engine?
They absolutely did. But then, they have hundreds of developers and billions of dollars, so it was that not all that big of a deal for them.
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Late to the game here. I was just “browsing” around when I found a link to Vivaldi. So, curious sort that I am, I checked it out and quickly found that for Vivaldi “across all platforms” does NOT include iOS. I’m wondering why not? I read through most of this thread until it started getting redundant, so please forgive me if I missed the “real” answer. One thing that came to my mind is that Vivaldi supposedly was built on an engine based on or similar to Opera. Opera has iOS. Anyway, I cannot use any desktop browser that does not sync to iOS. For me, that still remains Safari that fits all of my needs.
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@NCSilverBear Opera is 20 years older than Vivaldi, and has ten times the development staff. It, too, struggled to get an iOS version in the early days. Vivaldi team are still considering the best approach to the problem - whether to build from the ground up in WebKit (the long way, but the best calculated to arrive at a real "Vivaldi" product) or to, perhaps, merely re-brand/re-skin what would essentially still be Safari or Chrome, and lose the flexibility/essence of Vivaldi. Either way, it requires time and development staff. Brave did it, but essentially all they did was re-brand Chrome for iOS.
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@geoken I think the issue is, do the developers want a "Vivaldi" branded Safari, or actual Vivaldi, since recycling the UI elements ties their hands as to features. Edge and Brave have not tried, and will never try, to make anything as configurable as Vivaldi.
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@Ayespy said in Mobile Vivaldi for iOS:
@geoken I think the issue is, do the developers want a "Vivaldi" branded Safari, or actual Vivaldi, since recycling the UI elements ties their hands as to features. Edge and Brave have not tried, and will never try, to make anything as configurable as Vivaldi.
From my perspective, I look at my mobile browser as a companion app. It doesn't need to have the feature set of the desktop browser. It just needs to make it easy for me to continue my web browsing when I'm on mobile (and vice versa).
Of course, everyone will have a different opinion on the matter. But for me, if I'm looking some stuff up (maybe researching a product and looking at reviews and stuff) - 9 times out of 10 I will reach for Chrome. With chrome or FF I know that I can easily continue my search from the comfort of my couch on my iPad, then then next day when I'm back at my desk continue again on my laptop - seamlessly from platform to platform.
I understand the point you're making - if they can't make something unique, does it make sense to make anything at all. Obviously that's a subjective question, but I do think it makes sense even if the browser is a pixel for pixel clone of Safari. Without at least having something on Mobile, then the desktop browser - regardless of how feature packed it is - is a non starter for many.
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@armmat you could always use raindrop.io ? Its a excellent online bookmark service
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@geoken said in Mobile Vivaldi for iOS:
@Ayespy said in Mobile Vivaldi for iOS:
@geoken I think the issue is, do the developers want a "Vivaldi" branded Safari, or actual Vivaldi, since recycling the UI elements ties their hands as to features. Edge and Brave have not tried, and will never try, to make anything as configurable as Vivaldi.
From my perspective, I look at my mobile browser as a companion app. It doesn't need to have the feature set of the desktop browser. It just needs to make it easy for me to continue my web browsing when I'm on mobile (and vice versa).
Of course, everyone will have a different opinion on the matter. But for me, if I'm looking some stuff up (maybe researching a product and looking at reviews and stuff) - 9 times out of 10 I will reach for Chrome. With chrome or FF I know that I can easily continue my search from the comfort of my couch on my iPad, then then next day when I'm back at my desk continue again on my laptop - seamlessly from platform to platform.
I understand the point you're making - if they can't make something unique, does it make sense to make anything at all. Obviously that's a subjective question, but I do think it makes sense even if the browser is a pixel for pixel clone of Safari. Without at least having something on Mobile, then the desktop browser - regardless of how feature packed it is - is a non starter for many.
A pixel to pixel clone of safari with tab sync would be a gift from the Vivaldi gods. I read this forum periodically just to hear a whisper that the team is just vaguely thinking about making an app for ios.
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So now that in iOS 14, you can set 3rd party browsers as default, is there a chance that an iOS/iPadOS version of Vivaldi could come sometime in the future?
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You’re mixing two completely different things
- default browser = the web browser that’s used to open links from other apps (obviously you have to have it installed)
- browser engine = part of the browser that’s responsible for rendering the websites
- Apple requires all browsers to use the WebKit engine
There’s always a chance — IIRC even a plan. The problem is that V still has to be rebuilt on WebKit.
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@trose0928 You can only assign default browser from among those browsers that have been installed. iOS will not permit Vivaldi to be installed, because it is not built on the Apple/WebKit engine, the only engine they allow on their platform. So you can't select it, because it's not there. It's not there, because Apple excludes it.
That said, Vivaldi has plans to build (from scratch) an Apple/WebKit browser at some point in the future. It's just no possible yet.