Opera announced it is making available the second version of its operator browser, Opera One, in developer beta. Users now get new multimedia controls, split tabs, and new AI capabilities.
The company introduced new themes and design elements in order to give Opera One R2 a new look.

Traditionally, the sidebar has been where Opera puts the multimedia controls. This new version, however, gives the option to have the controls on a floating window-like the picture-in-picture video module. Opera noted that it ensured that the resizable floating controls will match the theme the browser has on your account. The size of the multimedia player depends on size, although the multimedia controls available on it are play/pause, next, previous, pop-out, and the options for volume.

The Opera One R2 also comes with a new tab controls feature based on a marquee split tab window, in which you can work on two web pages simultaneously. This functionality has been baked into the newer players by others, including Arc and SigmaOS, among others.

This new design adds an additional indicator of an underscore to an empty tab, showing the last tab closed. The indicators are called traces, and they'll either be light or dark based on how long it has been since the tab was closed. It will be shown for people with more than 30 tabs open.

Features of AI
Opera has been flirting with the AI features which already include the sidebar with its "Aria" assistant, summarization that's AI-powered, and allows users to use LLMs in a local setting.

The company has rolled out some features with Aria including image and voice generation and ability to understand images through its experimental AI features program. These would be baked into Opera One R2.

The new version of Opera brings a page context mode, by which users will be able to ask Aria questions related to a web page-finding, translating, or summarizing some bit of information.

Later this year, the Opera One R2 will be rolled out into production for all.