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Trying and Migrating to Vivaldi Browser

I have known the Vivaldi browser for years but never actually tried it, until it was recently recommended by Ralf Christian on X. Currently, I am using the Helium browser for the last few months, and it works fine but lacks some features like Widevine DRM, translation, etc.

So... this time I actually decided to try the Vivaldi browser. I'm on macOS currently, so I downloaded the .dmg installation file (~220 MB in filesize) and installed it as you would any other app.

In this post, I will share my experience of using the browser – things I liked and also things I didn't.

1. First impression

After opening the browser for the first time, the onboarding flow was great the import from other browsers worked fine as well. But when the actual window opened, it was overwhelming as there were a lot of panels, settings, etc.

It took me almost an hour to tweak small things and the final look was like this:

Vivaldi light mode look on my computer

Here are the things that I liked and didn't like in the first hour of using the browser:

  1. Loved the different themes it provides by default and how customizable is everything.
  2. Settings window was overwhelming as it has lots of options, but it's like this for the good reasons.
  3. Loved the widgets on the home page and used the Date and Privacy Statistics ones.
  4. Break Mode (ctrl + .) is amazing.
  5. Different profiles was an expected feature, but Workspaces are an added benefit.
  6. The inbuilt screenshot and page tiling feature.
  7. Proper support for Chrome extensions, I could easily install one from Chrome webstore.
  8. Vertical tabs, I'm not using it but great to have the feature

Vivaldi settings

2. Customizing as per my needs

I changed the below settings from how the browser ships with the default settings:

  1. I don't like my tabs colors changing for different websites I visit, so I had to turn this off. But it was tricky, as searching "accent" in Settings doesn't show anything and I had to manually find this option under Themes > Editor > Accent from Page.
  2. Removed the speed dials from new tabs, as I like to keep the new tab page clean. Currently, I'm just showing the Date and Privacy Statistics widgets on the Home.
  3. Removed some items from the side panel, like some bookmarked websites, translation widget, some extensions that were shown, etc.
  4. Turned off the Use Tab Zoom feature as it resets the zoom level when you re-open the website, and I wanted to retain the zoom level. I had to Google this one.

I must have changed one or two more settings, but overall this was it.

3. Things I loved

Some features in the Vivaldi browser are amazing and not available in most other browser I tried so far.

Secure sync feature

I love a reliable sync feature which is also secure, and Vivaldi has it. It provides an end-to-end encrypted sync feature that I connect multiple devices to and share tabs, bookmarks, settings, history, and so on.

E2E sync feature in Vivaldi

I connected my personal browser profile to the Vivaldi browser on my Android phone, and the sync immediately start working.

Vivaldi for Android

Initially, I didn't know that Vivaldi even has a browser for Android phones as well, but I was amazed when I installed it. It didn't have as many customization options like the desktop one, but

Vivaldi browser on Android

I only spent like 5 mins customizing and it already looks great on my phone. And the best thing now is, I can easily share tabs between my laptop and my phone by using Send to Your Devices feature.

RSS feed reader

When you visit a blog and it has an RSS feed, you see a small feed icon in the right of the address bar and clicking on it opens a small dialog from where you can save the feed. And new posts will be automatically fetched on a regular interval for you to read.

RSS feed support in Vivaldi

It works much like a fully functional feed reader app. I currently use an RSS reader app called NetNewsWire, but it's great feature in the browser.

By the way, there's also the Reader View that helps you read any articles without distractions. This feature is available in most browsers though.

Page Actions

One more crazy feature that I haven't seen in any browser is the Page Actions that lets you tweak any webpage for your advantage. Some cool actions are:

... and much more that you can learn about from their documentation.

Mail and Calendar clients

Vivaldi also has this stunning in-built email and calendar clients that you can connect your Gmail, iCloud, Outlook, or basically any account that supports IMAP or POP3.

Mail and Calendar client in Vivaldi

I connected my Google Workspace account just to see how it works, but I won't be using this feature as I prefer directly checking my emails via the web interface. But it's a great feature for people who do prefer an email/calendar client.

Or... maybe I will use this feature after I get more comfortable with the browser.

4. Not so cool things

But like any other things in the world, nothing is perfect. I didn't like a few things in the browser:

  1. Dragging a tab from my laptop screen to my second screen has some bugs. I tried dragging an already playing YouTube tab and then tab was lost – it's playing the background but not visible on either the first or second screen. I had to restart my browser to fix this issue.
  2. Import feature doesn't work for different Chrome browser profiles. I tried importing my main profile and it worked, but I couldn't find a way to import other Chrome profiles. But it's not a deal-breaker, at least for me.

I have completely migrated to the Vivaldi browser and have set it up as my default browser on both my laptop and my phone. It's been only a few hours since I installed it, but I am loving it so far.

I will keep this page updated, if I learn something new about the browser.

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