Vivaldi browser has been updated to version 7.2. The new version brings a handful of improvements, notably for the address bar, keyboard shortcuts and Vivaldi Mail.

Vivaldi's address bar is faster and smarter

Vivaldi's address bar has undergone some tweaks, it now displays results faster than ever. More importantly, the address bar now suggests more relevant results based on your browsing history. This also applies to search suggestions, providing that you have enabled the feature in the settings, search is now faster with improved accuracy.

Combine that with the hotkey Ctrl + L, and you can find what you need in Vivaldi's address bar instantly. According to the official release notes, the overall speed of the browser, as in the page load speed, is also faster thanks to some optimized connection handling. Vivaldi was never too fast for me, it wasn't exactly slow either, but now it really does seem to load pages quickly, even YouTube videos started playing immediately. I have to admit, that's quite an improvement.

Customize Vivaldi's priority shortcuts

Sometimes websites may not respect a keyboard shortcut that you use? For example, the Alt + Left or Alt + Right arrow keys to go back or forward respectively, may not work on a webpage because the website doesn't support the function, or the website could be using the same combination for a different function. E.g. Ctrl + L or even Ctrl + F could do something completely different from what you are used to.

Try going to ChatGPT.com and press Ctrl + K, and you will see what I mean. Instead of shifting the focus to the browser's search box, the website uses the shortcut to focus the cursor on its chat field. That can be really annoying.

Well, not anymore, you can now define priority keyboard shortcuts to force Vivaldi to use a specific hotkey for an action. Head to the browser's Settings > Keyboards, and set your preferred options. What does it do? Vivaldi will prevent websites from using the priority keyboard actions for their own commands. This feature works across all desktop platforms.

Speaking of keyboard shortcuts, Workspaces now support Quick Commands, use the hotkey Ctrl + E to organize and manage your stuff.

RSS Reader without Mail and Calendar

One particular change that I really like is that Vivaldi now allows you to access its built-in RSS Feed Reader without setting up an account for Mail and Calendar. It's about time! Why on earth was that requirement in place? Anyway, to set up your feeds, go to the Settings > Mail > and select "Enable Feeds". Now, switch to the Feeds section and add the URLs that you want to subscribe to.

You can access the RSS Feeds from Vivaldi's side-panel.

Vivaldi 7.2 also introduces a new currency widget that you can use to check currency conversions in real-time on the dashboard. Vivaldi Mail has received some much-needed quality of life improvements, you can create an event directly from a mail or a web page, using the right-click menu. The event will be added to your calendar, without the need for further input. And, you can finally reorder your email accounts in Vivaldi Mail.

Download Vivaldi 7.2 from the official website for Windows, Linux, macOS.

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