It’s all too easy to lose time on the internet. Scrolling through social media, falling down algorithm-led rabbit holes on YouTube, and clicking on bad news story after bad news story. We know too much screen time is bad for us, but acknowledging the problem and doing something about it are two different things.
Browser maker Opera has an idea for cultivating a healthier relationship with the web and our computers, and it’s a new browser called Opera Air. Now available for Windows and macOS, its reason for being is to “actively improve your well-being” by encouraging breaks, exercises, and meditations.
The Opera Air Ethos
When it comes to improving your user experience, Opera Air starts with the basic building blocks of the browser interface: It’s all round corners and frosted glass effects, and Opera itself describes it as a “minimalist Scandinavian design.” (Opera is headquartered in Oslo, Norway.) It’s all designed to be as relaxing and as gentle as possible—though the amount of relaxation you’ll feel does still to some extent depend on the sites you choose to look at.
“The web is beautiful, but it can be chaotic and overwhelming,” says Mohamed Salah, the senior director of product at Opera. “We decided to look at science-backed ways to help our users navigate it in a way that makes them feel and function better.”
To that end you’ve got a choice of background sounds and a choice of exercises to work with, both easily accessible from the main browsing screen. You can also set up reminders to take a break at regular intervals, and it’s likely Opera will add more over time—the current version of the browser is labeled “early access.”
To research the need for a calming tool like Opera Air, the company conducted a survey of 7,000 people across seven countries. It found that 58 percent of respondents “sometimes feel overwhelmed or stressed while browsing the web,” while 83 percent of respondents said they would like a “web browser made them feel better as they went about their day.”
Running Opera Air
The initial setup for Opera Air won’t take you long to work through. You’ll need to choose a wallpaper backdrop, and there are a variety of soothing images and looping videos to pick from. You’re also able to import data such as bookmarks and browsing history from another browser.
After that, you get to the Speed Dial quick links page borrowed from the main Opera browser. If you’ve used Opera before, you’ll notice some of the browser’s distinctive features: The choice of workspaces on the left, for example, where you can separate groups of tabs, and the integrations with the Aria AI, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp.
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