Vivaldi 7.9 never ceases to amaze us. Less than two months ago, we received the browser v7.8including the ability to create mosaics by dragging and dropping tabs, among other new features. Today have thrown Vivaldi 7.9And they've introduced something that, at least to me, is a little reminiscent of Zen Browser: a feature that will allow certain elements to be automatically hidden to make our browsing experience much more immersive, as you can see in the video below.
Right now, if we press F11, the tab (or tabs if we're using split view) will display in full screen, just like in other browsers. But in Vivaldi 7.9, if we press F11 after Ctrl (or Command on macOS), we'll activate what's called "Auto-hide": it will hide everything and only show it if we hover the cursor over it.
Vivaldi 7.9 and its Auto-Hide
I have to admit a couple of things. First, I can't say much about how it works because it hasn't arrived on my Linux distribution yet. Second, it's something I've been waiting for. Not exactly as they've implemented it, which goes beyond what I wanted, but the ability to hide the panel bar and have it appear when hovering over it. If I'm not mistaken, Vivaldi 7.9 will allow you to configure what gets hidden, and if you choose only the panel bar, it will do exactly what I was hoping for.
But I won't lie: what they've implemented is even better. It won't just let me do what I wanted to do with the panel; I'll also be able to do it in the URL bar, tabs, and bottom panel. I can't wait to use it.
UPDATEDI've already tested it, on a virtual machine where I'm testing EndeavourOS and CachyOS. if Manjaro were to end badlyAnd I think there's no going back. It simply delivers what it promises: floating parts of the interface that only appear when you invoke them, which you do by hovering the cursor over their edges.
Potential security problems
Vivaldi Technologies warns us that Hiding items can be dangerousWithout the URL bar visible, a malicious user could insert a fake link, and the hidden URL bar would prevent the warning from appearing. This is something worth keeping in mind.
New way to open links in Vivaldi 7.9
Vivaldi 7.9 will add another way to open the linksThe idea is to avoid losing track of what we were doing. When we open a link that isn't set to open in the background, we'll jump from one page to another. If we're trying to find out something about a specific topic, we might end up losing the original link. We can always check the history, but it's more cumbersome.
This version includes the option "Open link as secondary tab," which will open the link next to the current tab. Once this option is selected, any additional links clicked in the original tab will continue to load in the secondary tab.
Mail now opens in its own composer
Vivaldi Mail also arrives with significant changes. Now The editor can be opened in a separate windowThis gives us greater control and flexibility. And if that weren't enough, it's now easier to switch between rich text and plain text with just the touch of a button.
You can read about these new features at the link we provided at the beginning of this article, and the complete list of changes at this other link.