Vivaldi bypasses restrictions to access Bing Chat. Improves Workspaces.

June 8, 2023 - Today, we launch the new version, Vivaldi 6.1, on desktop and notebooks. It is now ready for download on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

VIVALDI SENDS A CLEAR HINT TO MICROSOFT BING CHAT

Vivaldi is built on top of the Chromium open-source project. It's the same core used in Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. Websites that work in one Chromium browser should work in others. Many websites worked perfectly in Vivaldi but were blocked when not included on the site's allowed list of leading browsers. To combat this, back in 2019, Vivaldi was forced to change its User-Agent strings. These strings contain the web browser's name, the name of the operating system, and other technical information. Vivaldi began masquerading as Google Chrome for better site compatibility. Vivaldi would like to proudly announce itself as Vivaldi, but the current state of the web makes this difficult. Fast forward to 2023: The new Client Hints standard is intended to replace the legacy User-Agent. Vivaldi is now getting reports that websites block Vivaldi based on its Client Hints. History is repeating itself.

Vivaldi developer, Yngve Pettersen explains User-Agent discrimination:

It's not only websites that discriminate based on your name. Vivaldi now masquerades as Google Chrome for graphic card drivers, which unlocks graphic card driver optimizations made specifically for Chrome. By pretending to be Chrome, the GPU user uses less memory and resources. It improves battery life, reduces crashes, and improves system stability.

There are people who would like to try Bing Chat but have been unable to do so as they would need to use Microsoft Edge for that. Now, we have taken additional steps to ensure that you get to use Bing Chat. Vivaldi masquerades as Microsoft Edge when visiting Bing. This means that you can access Bing Chat using Vivaldi.

WORKSPACES ARE NOW IMPROVED

In Vivaldi 6.0, we introduced Workspaces on the desktop. Wired explains it best: "[Workspaces] turn out to be yet another great option to tame your tab jungle." It takes our unique tab management functionality even higher. Workspaces lets you quickly switch between sets of tabs and keep your tab bar tidy. The ability to use Tab Stacks (groups) and Tab Tiling (split-screen view) within Workspaces makes working with tabs way more fun and focused. With your encouraging feedback, we have continued to improve Workspaces. Now you have the ability to drag and drop and rearrange different Workspaces as per your preferences.

VIVALDI 6.1 IS ALL SET TO BE DOWNLOADED

At every step, we are improving Vivaldi by polishing our features with the help of your feedback. We love them, so keep them coming in. Download Vivaldi today and make it yours! For more details on Vivaldi 6.1, head to https://vivaldi.com/features/ .