Vivaldi's Android browser can now run desktop-style extensions, with version 8.2 rolling out to phones and tablets today. The update adds a puzzle piece icon to the Address Bar that opens the Chrome Web Store, where users can search for an extension and install it with an "Add to Vivaldi" button. Vivaldi says the feature was the most requested addition for its Android browser.
Installed extensions are switched on across every site by default, and users can turn off all or some of them for a particular page. The puzzle piece can be removed from the Address Bar by turning off the "Pin to toolbar" setting, and individual extensions can be pinned there and reordered by dragging. Extension data can be synced from a desktop setup to Android phones or tablets, though the extensions themselves are not synced, so each device needs its own download. Vivaldi also warns that not every desktop extension works on mobile.
The same release brings a calculator to the Address Bar on both Android and iOS, matching a feature that arrived on Vivaldi's desktop browser. Typing a calculation into the bar shows the result, which can be copied to the clipboard with a tap. The calculator can be turned off under Settings, in Address Bar, then Address Field Options.
Extension support on Android was not a single-step launch. Vivaldi's snapshot 4143.3 from late August introduced the ability to add extensions, but required keeping "Desktop site" enabled on the Chrome Web Store to install them. A September 4 snapshot then fixed extension icon sizing, popup clipping under reduced interface zoom, and random freezing and crashing, and added a mobile mode for the Chrome Web Store. The 8.2 release candidate followed on September 8 with tab strip fixes and updated translations.
The new version lands roughly six years after Vivaldi first shipped its Android browser, a stretch in which the company added a built-in ad and tracker blocker, a desktop-style tab bar, custom search engines, a translator, and two-level tab stacks. Vivaldi frames extensions as an extension of that same user-choice approach rather than a replacement for its built-in tools.
Vivaldi does not say how many extensions in the Chrome Web Store are compatible with its mobile browser, and the company gives no figure for how many users requested the feature. The changelog for the jump from 8.1 to 8.2 is published alongside the announcement.
Separately, work on vertical tabs continues on the desktop side. A September 9 snapshot resumed that effort, which had been paused for the 8.2 release, adding a hover-triggered expansion animation for vertical tabs and bookmark updates. Vivaldi 8.2 for mobile is available now.
