Opera Mini browser for Android has announced support for 13 Indian languages, namely Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. With this update, this browser now supports 90 languages. With this update, Opera Mini Browser also sports a new QR-code reader and generator.
According to Opera software, ”many countries, and especially highly populated countries like India, Indonesia, Nigeria and South Africa, have a population that uses several native languages. This presents a challenge for global game and app developers, as millions of users often face using services in a second language. While other companies are getting up to speed in this area, as seen by the recent global release of Netflix in 130 new countries, Opera has always faced this challenge head on, aiming to provide our products in our users’ preferred languages. The improved language support in Opera Mini for Android maintains this tradition”.
In India, more than 70% of the population does not use English as their primary language. The next generation of internet users will come from non-metro cities and they are most likely to be comfortable in engaging with the web in their regional languages”, adds Sunil Kamath, Vice President – South Asia & South East Asia at Opera Software.
In earlier versions of Opera Mini, the UI language was set according to the language on the Android OS. With the new Opera Mini, users can choose from the list of 90 installed languages. The most common languages in a person’s country will be shown in top of the language list in the settings menu. Users will also be prompted to select a language the first time they use the updated version of the browser.
In addition to the improved language support, Opera Mini for Android is also introducing a QR-code reader and generator and an improved download manager.
“More products and services use QR codes as an easy way to give users access to web content. On a mobile phone, typing long URLs can be challenging and frustrating. With a QR code, just do a quick scan with your phone’s camera, and you’re on your way. We’ve also included a QR code generator, so if you want to share a link with a friend nearby, you can create a QR code to any page yourself,” says Christian Uribe.
The download manager is also improved in this new version of Opera Mini. “We’ve done a lot of research on how to improve downloads in the browser, as we know it’s something many users care a lot about. We’ve made loads of improvements and tweaks lately to improve the stability and speed of downloads,” adds Uribe.
