Opera presents Early Bird mode in Opera One to test upcoming features

rick2

rick2

So, that's why Opera Beta users like me were left out in the cold lately?
I mean, Stable is 125 whil Beta is still 124...

Guess it's time to move from Beta to another browser for me.

DerSchlingel

DerSchlingel

Wasn't Beta originally meant to assure quality of development? Isn't that necessary any longer? Otherwise I happily use the Early Bird features already.

rnghwdbcs

rnghwdbcs

How can you transfer your settings from Beta to Stable? I installed a Stable and turned sync on (on both) but that doesn't seem to work

burnout426

burnout426 Volunteer @rnghwdbcs

@rnghwdbcs

In Beta, click the account icon on the address bar and log into your Opera account. Then, click the icon again and click "Sync" to goto the URL opera://settings/syncSetup. There, choose to sync everything (don't choose to create a custom passphrase). Then, close the syncSetup tab to initiate syncing. You can then monitor the syncing at the URL opera://sync-internals and even trigger updates if needed.

Then, goto https://www.sync.opera.com/, log in and confirm your data is there. Then, you can close Beta.

Then, in Opera Stable, log in to your account, goto the syncSetup page, enable syncing of everything, close the syncSetup page and wait for things to come in. Goto opera://sync-internals if needed. After a while, close Opera and open it back up if you have to.

If you need to retry syncing of Opera Stable, you can close it, and delete the "Opera Stable" folders in both "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software" and "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Opera Software". Then, try syncing again.

Or, for a way to do things without Sync, close both Opera Stable and Opera Beta. Then, in both "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software" and "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Opera Software", delete the "Opera Stable" folder and rename the "Opera Next" folder to "Opera Stable". Or, you can make a copy of "Opera Next" and rename that copy to "Opera Stable" so that Beta still has its folders if you want. It's up to you. This method usually works, but there can always be bugs caused by the profile being run with different Opera versions, so it's good to have backups if you have anything important.

Another way you can do things is via export and import. At the URL opera://password-manager/settings, you can export your passwords in one Opera and import them in another. For bookmarks, you can export your bookmarks at the URL opera://bookmarks and import them by going to the URL opera://settings/importData and choosing "Bookmarks HTML File" in the drop-down. For open tabs, before your export your bookmarks, right-click a tab, goto "save" and choose "all tabs to speed dial folder". Then, repeat for each workspace and window if needed. Then, after importing bookmarks into Opera Stable, you can goto the URL opera://bookmarks, right-click on a folder for open tabs and choose "open all".

rnghwdbcs

rnghwdbcs @burnout426

@burnout426 Thanks, copying the folder worked (or at least it seems so so far). In the meantime I've found out that while some of my settings were copied with just sync, some of the others (like theme or search engines weren't (even though sync internals said they are synchronised)).

Anyway, I understand that Stable with Early Bird is going to work like Beta used to, and I'm completely ok with this. I feel that it would work better if we've been informed earlier about this move, instead of just stopping updates

max1c

max1c

This sucks. The stable is so freaking buggy and constantly has new regressions introduced. Please focus reliability not new features. Your stable branch is basically a beta already. It's only going to get worse now.

krishnakrverma

krishnakrverma

This was a necessary cost-cutting measure. I hope it will help speed up the fixing of bugs and further development of the browser, too.

krishnakrverma

krishnakrverma @andrew84

@andrew84: You provide so much feedback yourself, why don't you join them?? I mean... You should.

burnout426

burnout426 Volunteer

Now that Opera One has Early Bird, when creating a new forum thread or Reddit it post, it'd be a good idea to mention whether you have Early Bird on or off. And, if it's on, it'd be good to mention the state of each specific Early Bird setting.

Opera-QA-Team

Opera-QA-Team Opera @rick2

@rick2: Thank you for your feedback about deprecating the Beta version of Opera and introducing the Early Bird program in the stable stream. We understand this is a significant change, and we want to clarify what it means for you.

First, this change will not impact the quality of the regular stable stream. The stable version remains our primary, fully tested release, and it continues to go through the same rigorous quality assurance, automated checks, and manual testing as before. Stability, performance, and reliability of the main browser remain our top priorities.

Second, the Early Bird program is entirely optional. It is meant for users who want earlier access to new features within the stable stream and are comfortable with the possibility of minor issues. If you prefer the most stable and predictable experience, you can simply stay on the regular stable version and ignore Early Bird.

Third, we are not removing our Developer stream. Opera Developer continues to exist as our earliest, most experimental channel, where new ideas and features are introduced and tested first. The new flow looks like this:
Developer → Early Bird (in stable) → Stable
By removing the separate Beta channel, we can shorten the time it takes to deliver product updates. Instead of maintaining three parallel consumer channels (Developer, Beta, Stable), we now focus on Developer for early experimentation and Early Bird within Stable for broader real‑world testing. This reduces duplication of work and allows improvements and fixes to reach all users faster, without lowering the bar for quality in the stable stream.

We truly appreciate everyone who has used Beta over the years and helped us improve Opera. Your feedback remains crucial, and the combination of Developer + Early Bird is designed to keep that testing spirit alive while making our release process more efficient and responsive.

Opera-QA-Team

Opera-QA-Team Opera @DerSchlingel

@derschlingel: Thank you for your feedback about deprecating the Beta version of Opera and introducing the Early Bird program in the stable stream. We understand this is a significant change, and we want to clarify what it means for you.

First, this change will not impact the quality of the regular stable stream. The stable version remains our primary, fully tested release, and it continues to go through the same rigorous quality assurance, automated checks, and manual testing as before. Stability, performance, and reliability of the main browser remain our top priorities.

Second, the Early Bird program is entirely optional. It is meant for users who want earlier access to new features within the stable stream and are comfortable with the possibility of minor issues. If you prefer the most stable and predictable experience, you can simply stay on the regular stable version and ignore Early Bird.

Third, we are not removing our Developer stream. Opera Developer continues to exist as our earliest, most experimental channel, where new ideas and features are introduced and tested first. The new flow looks like this:
Developer → Early Bird (in stable) → Stable
By removing the separate Beta channel, we can shorten the time it takes to deliver product updates. Instead of maintaining three parallel consumer channels (Developer, Beta, Stable), we now focus on Developer for early experimentation and Early Bird within Stable for broader real‑world testing. This reduces duplication of work and allows improvements and fixes to reach all users faster, without lowering the bar for quality in the stable stream.

We truly appreciate everyone who has used Beta over the years and helped us improve Opera. Your feedback remains crucial, and the combination of Developer + Early Bird is designed to keep that testing spirit alive while making our release process more efficient and responsive.

Opera-QA-Team

Opera-QA-Team Opera @rnghwdbcs

@rnghwdbcs: Thank you for your feedback about deprecating the Beta version of Opera and introducing the Early Bird program in the stable stream. We understand this is a significant change, and we want to clarify what it means for you.

First, this change will not impact the quality of the regular stable stream. The stable version remains our primary, fully tested release, and it continues to go through the same rigorous quality assurance, automated checks, and manual testing as before. Stability, performance, and reliability of the main browser remain our top priorities.

Second, the Early Bird program is entirely optional. It is meant for users who want earlier access to new features within the stable stream and are comfortable with the possibility of minor issues. If you prefer the most stable and predictable experience, you can simply stay on the regular stable version and ignore Early Bird.

Third, we are not removing our Developer stream. Opera Developer continues to exist as our earliest, most experimental channel, where new ideas and features are introduced and tested first. The new flow looks like this:
Developer → Early Bird (in stable) → Stable
By removing the separate Beta channel, we can shorten the time it takes to deliver product updates. Instead of maintaining three parallel consumer channels (Developer, Beta, Stable), we now focus on Developer for early experimentation and Early Bird within Stable for broader real‑world testing. This reduces duplication of work and allows improvements and fixes to reach all users faster, without lowering the bar for quality in the stable stream.

We truly appreciate everyone who has used Beta over the years and helped us improve Opera. Your feedback remains crucial, and the combination of Developer + Early Bird is designed to keep that testing spirit alive while making our release process more efficient and responsive.

Opera-QA-Team

Opera-QA-Team Opera @max1c

@max1c: Thank you for your feedback about deprecating the Beta version of Opera and introducing the Early Bird program in the stable stream. We understand this is a significant change, and we want to clarify what it means for you.

First, this change will not impact the quality of the regular stable stream. The stable version remains our primary, fully tested release, and it continues to go through the same rigorous quality assurance, automated checks, and manual testing as before. Stability, performance, and reliability of the main browser remain our top priorities.

Second, the Early Bird program is entirely optional. It is meant for users who want earlier access to new features within the stable stream and are comfortable with the possibility of minor issues. If you prefer the most stable and predictable experience, you can simply stay on the regular stable version and ignore Early Bird.

Third, we are not removing our Developer stream. Opera Developer continues to exist as our earliest, most experimental channel, where new ideas and features are introduced and tested first. The new flow looks like this:
Developer → Early Bird (in stable) → Stable
By removing the separate Beta channel, we can shorten the time it takes to deliver product updates. Instead of maintaining three parallel consumer channels (Developer, Beta, Stable), we now focus on Developer for early experimentation and Early Bird within Stable for broader real‑world testing. This reduces duplication of work and allows improvements and fixes to reach all users faster, without lowering the bar for quality in the stable stream.

We truly appreciate everyone who has used Beta over the years and helped us improve Opera. Your feedback remains crucial, and the combination of Developer + Early Bird is designed to keep that testing spirit alive while making our release process more efficient and responsive.

Opera-QA-Team

Opera-QA-Team Opera @krishnakrverma

@krishnakrverma: Thank you for your feedback about deprecating the Beta version of Opera and introducing the Early Bird program in the stable stream. We understand this is a significant change, and we want to clarify what it means for you.

First, this change will not impact the quality of the regular stable stream. The stable version remains our primary, fully tested release, and it continues to go through the same rigorous quality assurance, automated checks, and manual testing as before. Stability, performance, and reliability of the main browser remain our top priorities.

Second, the Early Bird program is entirely optional. It is meant for users who want earlier access to new features within the stable stream and are comfortable with the possibility of minor issues. If you prefer the most stable and predictable experience, you can simply stay on the regular stable version and ignore Early Bird.

Third, we are not removing our Developer stream. Opera Developer continues to exist as our earliest, most experimental channel, where new ideas and features are introduced and tested first. The new flow looks like this:
Developer → Early Bird (in stable) → Stable
By removing the separate Beta channel, we can shorten the time it takes to deliver product updates. Instead of maintaining three parallel consumer channels (Developer, Beta, Stable), we now focus on Developer for early experimentation and Early Bird within Stable for broader real‑world testing. This reduces duplication of work and allows improvements and fixes to reach all users faster, without lowering the bar for quality in the stable stream.

We truly appreciate everyone who has used Beta over the years and helped us improve Opera. Your feedback remains crucial, and the combination of Developer + Early Bird is designed to keep that testing spirit alive while making our release process more efficient and responsive.

DerSchlingel

DerSchlingel @Opera-QA-Team

@Opera-QA-Team Will this lead to the Chromium version in Opera stable being closer to the most recent Chromium in Chrome and Edge?

leocg

leocg Moderator Volunteer @DerSchlingel

@DerSchlingel I don't think it's related

rick2

rick2 @Opera-QA-Team

@Opera-QA-Team thaks for the respone, but I'm not worried about Stable (which I'll keep using as my main browser), just commenting that I'll stop (actually, I already have stoped) using Beta but don't want to switch to Developer as that is a bit too unstable for my taste.