Opera Max, which had introduced video savings for Netflix and YouTube apps a month ago, now brings the same data savings feature to music apps. These include YouTube Music, Saavn, Gaana, Slacker Radio and Pandora.
With the new added feature, users can now enjoy streaming their favorite music apps on the go without worrying about consuming more than their allowed mobile data. The latest Opera Max version offers data savings of up to 50 percent, giving consumers a way to stretch their data two times its supposed usage.
"Now, we have added audio compression for these music apps so that people will feel free to stream music without having to look constantly for available, free Wi-Fi coverage," said Product Manager Sergey Lossev at Opera Software.
Lossev also said that the data saving feature of the app is particularly helpful to those data plans that have limited coverage.
Opera Max uses Rocket Optimizer for its streaming audio optimization. The latter handles audio traffic streaming in a way that is similar to how it's done with video traffic. It offers dual support to MP3 and MP4 stream formats while also being able to convert streams to AAC+ codec. This way, the user can enjoy high audio quality on a low bitrate connection using any compatible device.
The data savings feature offered by Opera Max works on both Wi-Fi and cellular data connections. This allows users to save data whenever they want and wherever they may be. The company promises to bring support to other services in the near future as well.
"We keep fine tuning the streaming-audio-optimization technology in Opera Max, so people can save more data while enjoying good audio quality," said Lossev.
According to Lossev, the first five music apps mentioned earlier are among the first ones to pass the company's quality-assurance test. He adds that more music-streaming apps will be supported in the future. These could include platforms such as Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music and more.
The latest version of Opera Max is now available to download in Google Play. The company speculates that the data-saving app will be installed in as many as 100 million devices by 2017.
