Technology advances so fast, that what was significant becomes just less significant.
Long before phones become smartphones, which are literally powerful pocket computers they are today, the internet on mobile was a challenge. Slow speeds, tiny screens, and expensive data. And then came Opera with its Opera Mini, which came like a breath of fresh air.
The lightweight web browser utilizes server-side compression, where everything—from images to text to scripts—was compressed up to 90%. The result is that, web pages loaded a lot faster, and used far less data.
Fast forward to the modern days of internet, where some flagship phones can have better performance than a number of budget or midrange PCs, Opera Mini's influence started diminishing.
But Opera, which still continuously develop and enhance Opera Mini on Android, isn't planning to sunset the browser anytime soon.
This is because Opera Mini is getting an AI touch, just like its bigger siblings.
Just in Browser AI Aria is now available in all Opera browsers!⁰⁰Excited to announce that with the latest update over 100M Opera Mini users around the world now get access to Aria - all while saving data and not impacting the app's size. pic.twitter.com/cbCQzrQs1L
— Opera (@opera) April 16, 2025
Opera Mini, with over 100 million users, can now offer Aria AI integration right within the browser.
"Experience a smarter way to search and learn with Aria, Opera Mini’s free browser AI. Whether you’re a student, professional, or just curious, Aria is here to help you find what you need," said Opera on its website.
With this update, Opera Mini is offering users across developing countries, which are still experiencing relatively expensive and unstable mobile internet, access to AI that can retrieve up-to-date information from the web. Aria, which serves as a chatbot, can be users' assistant, helping them learn new skills or summarize content online and create images, from inside the chat.
This means, Opera Mini, which has long provided data savings technologies, is also giving access to powerful AI at no additional cost, all without impacting the app's size.
"AI is rapidly becoming an integral part of the daily internet experience – bringing Aria to Opera Mini is a natural addition to our most-downloaded browser. With the addition of our built-in AI, Aria, we're excited to explore how AI can further enhance the feature set our users rely on every day," said Jørgen Arnesen, EVP Mobile at Opera.
At this time, Aria is already integrated in various Opera browsers on both desktop and mobile, enabling access to a chat-based interface to the AI. It enhances user interaction through information retrieval, text or code generation, image generation and understanding.
Powered by Opera's own Composer AI engine, Aria utilizes both OpenAI and Google AI technologies to provide the most relevant answers and image generation capabilities.
By baking Aria into Opera Mini, the AI is effectively available in all Opera browsers.
To use Aria on Opera Mini, users need to update to the latest version, and access the AI through the main menu or at the bottom of the start page.
Opera Mini was launched by Opera Software when it still was a Norwegian company in 2005. The low-end sibling for Opera Mobile, was developed for iOS, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone 8.1, BlackBerry, Symbian, and Bada.
Its goal was to make mobile web browsing fast, efficient, and accessible—especially for users with limited data plans or low-powered phones.