Vivaldi Technologies has released Vivaldi 6.1, a new stable version of the company's Chromium-based web browser, to the public.
Vivaldi is a highly customizable web browser, probably the most customizable browser with a sizeable market share these days. It gives users a lot of control over how the browser looks like and what menu items and other features it displays to the user.
Vivaldi 6.1 improves the recently introduced Workspaces feature of the web browser and unlocks access to Bing Chat in the browser. It is the first major browser, apart from Microsoft Edge, that allows users to access Bing Chat directly. While Microsoft is rolling out support for some third-party browsers currently, the rollout does appear very limited at this stage.
Vivaldi users who wanted to try Bing Chat received the "only in Microsoft Edge" notification up until now. Any non-Microsoft browser user saw the same message, and it certainly helped push some users to download and install Edge, or start using it.
Vivaldi browser is based on the same core as Microsoft Edge. There is no technical hurdle that would prevent Bing Chat from working in the browser. The company admits that its browser, and other browsers from smaller developers, are discriminated against regularly.
Vivaldi is masquerading itself as Google Chrome already to level the playing field. Without this masquerading, Vivaldi users would not be able to access some sites, would experience site compatibility issues on some sites, and even benefit from improved battery life, reduced crashes and improved stability, as some graphics driver ignore smaller browsers.
Yandex, maker of Yandex Browser, published information about the driver discrimination back in March. The company discovered through tests that it could reduce the number of GPU crashes by the factor 5.5 and memory consumption of the GPU process by 8% on average by claiming to be Google Chrome.
Bing Chat in Vivaldi browser
Vivaldi 6.1 is masquerading as Microsoft Edge on Bing to bypass the artificial blocking of other web browsers. Users of the browser may start using Bing Chat directly in Vivaldi, the usual chat interface is displayed when Bing Chat is opened in the browser.
Vivaldi writes: "Vivaldi masquerades as Microsoft Edge when visiting Bing. This means that you can access Bing Chat using Vivaldi on desktop and Android devices."
Bing Chat may be accessed anonymously or by using a Microsoft account. Use of a Microsoft account unlocks more options and longer sessions.
Other improvements in Vivaldi 6.1
Vivaldi's latest browser version improves the Workspaces feature, which the company introduced in Vivaldi 6.0. Workspaces are a new option to manage tabs in the browser. It allows Vivaldi users to group tabs into sets and display only these in the Vivaldi interface.
It helps focus on the a specific task and ensures that nothing is lost when the browser is closed. Vivaldi 6.1 improves the Workspaces feature by adding drag & drop support to rearrange workspaces.
Vivaldi browser offers the most tab management options of all browsers. It supports tab stacks, groups, and numerous options to display multiple tabs in a single browser window next to each other.
Another new tab management feature is the ability to copy all links from a workspace or tab group. It is a helpful option to get the list of all URLs open in a workspace or tab stack quickly, e.g., for sharing purposes.
Closing Words
Vivaldi continues to expand the browser's customizable and usability options, which sets it apart from the majority of browsers out there. The company announced recently that the first stable version of Vivaldi for iOS will come soon. Previews are already available.
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