Opera adds Aria AI assistant to Opera Mini on Android
Aria AI can help users get the latest news and information on different topics,
Norway-based browser company Opera is bringing its free Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant, Aria, to Opera Mini — its popular Android browser with more than 100 million users worldwide.
Aria AI can help users get the latest news and information on different topics, learn more about various subjects, and generate images. Opera uses a mix of models from OpenAI and Google to get relevant answers. Summarisation and image generation, directly into the browser at no additional cost.
Interest in AI solutions
Jørgen Arnesen, executive vice president, mobile at Opera, said AI is rapidly becoming an integral part of the daily internet experience.
'We're seeing a great interest in AI solutions among South Africans, so bringing Aria to Opera Mini is a natural addition to our most-downloaded browser. With the integration of our built-in AI, Aria, we're excited to explore how AI can further enhance the feature set our South African users rely on every day.'
Opera Mini is known and appreciated for numerous unique features – from live football scores to the built-in digital wallet MiniPay.
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Data saving
Opera Mini, which launched in 2005, helps users save on data while browsing.
The company claims that even with the launch of the new AI assistant, it can help save data without increasing the app's size.
'Aria is optimised for minimal data consumption and is included within Opera's free daily data bundles in South Africa — making it an ideal solution for the 69% of South Africans who would use AI tools only if they didn't add to data usage.'
Integration
Aria browser AI integrates into Opera's browsers on both desktop and mobile to enable an accessible chat-based interface with AI.
The company said Opera Mini has been downloaded more than 1 billion times on the Google Play Store by people who chose it over the pre-installed browsers on Android mobile devices.
According to data from app analytics firm Appfigures, Opera Mini has clocked 7.1 million downloads this year worldwide.
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