Android Browser Vivaldi 5.6 Update: New Features, Customization, More

Vivaldi's 5.6 update is now live with a new and convenient Mastodon integration feature, among several changes.

Android browser Vivaldi has launched its update to version 5.6. The browser update is headlined by a new, customizable menu bar, hardware key authentication integration, enhanced navigation, and other new features included in the patch.

Notebook Check reports that the update's entire version number is 5.6.2867.36. The updated Vivaldi Browser is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Vivaldi Browser for Android received a minor update on December 3 and is now at version 5.5.2807.43.

Vivaldi 5.6 Now Enables Mastodon Integration

Vivaldi has become the first web browser to have its own Mastodon instance, according to Engadget.

Users can discover a new icon in the sidebar of the Vivaldi Panel that allows them to visit Mastodon with just one click after the recent update.

In fact, Android Police reports that Vivaldi has long supported the decentralized microblogging platform Mastodon in order to further its philosophy against what it refers to as "surveillance capitalism," along with the trackers, data, and advertisements that go along with the idea.

Access to social.vivaldi.net now requires an active Vivaldi.net account. However, anyone can browse and join the instance with new login information. If a person chooses to create a presence on Vivaldi Social, their username is immediately reserved when they create a Vivaldi account.

Vivaldi 5.6 Update Changelog

Aside from the major Mastodon integration, Vivaldi's 5.6 update features several new features and fixes included in its changelog. Among the major improvements include the following, according to Vivaldi's changelog:

New Features

Panels (Mastodon): Add 'Vivaldi Social' as one of the default web panels
Tabs: Allow pinning tabs in a stack
Settings: Re-structure settings order and add colored icons
Search: Add You.com to the US, Canada, UK, and Germany search dropdown
Accessibility: Insufficient contrast for placeholder texts

Address Bar

Autocomplete and selected items are different
Autocomplete ignores case
"Bookmarks Results" is not in the correct position
Change the way we sort bookmarks
The correct item is not selected
Will not autocomplete when entering a space
Will not clean suggestion results when disabling suggestions
The dropdown can lose the selected item
Frequently visited sites appear even when the option is disabled
Keep the selected item when typing the full URL
The saved password popup isn't properly written
Search using a keyword with more than one letter will suggest from keyword
Select the shortest search first in the typed history
Selection flickering in the address field
Shift+Del in address bar history results moves selection upper and updates results below it
Wrong search suggestions show

Tabs