Vivaldi 8.3 brings a more powerful ad & tracker blocker and more polished vertical tabs

Norwegian browser maker Vivaldi has released version 8.3 of its browser simultaneously on desktop, Android, and iOS, headlined by a redesigned ad and tracker blocker. The rebuilt blocker gives users per-site control over exactly what gets through, and the update arrives alongside the same privacy-first messaging Vivaldi has long employed, positioning itself as a European alternative to Big Tech browsers that harvest browsing data for advertising profiles. The new blocker design works identically across phones, tablets, and computers, so protection looks and works the same way everywhere. This is particularly useful since Chrome no longer support powerful ad blockers such as uBlock Origin due to the removal of Manifest v3.

On the desktop side, vertical tabs, a Vivaldi staple long before the concept became an industry talking point, receive further polish. Pinned tabs on a vertical tab bar can now sit side by side in a compact grid at the top, keeping mail, calendar, and other tools one click away, with a settings fallback for those who prefer the traditional full-width layout. Desktop also gains “Paste and Go” support for a whole list of links at once. On Android, the update brings smarter tab stacks, improved media controls that surface every tab with audio in the phone's media player, so users can hop between a radio stream, podcast, and playlist without digging through Vivaldi, a quicker way to jump from a site to its native app, and a “Copy Sanitized Link” feature that strips tracking parameters before a URL hits the clipboard.

iOS users arguably see the biggest quality-of-life gains: with the blocker enabled, pages now load noticeably faster and battery life improves, and a new setting lets users choose exactly where new tabs open: after the related tab, after the active tab, as the last tab, or sorted into tab stacks. As with every release, Vivaldi CEO Jon von Tetzchner emphasizes the company's independence as an employee-owned business that answers neither to advertisers nor venture capital. Vivaldi 8.3 is available now for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS.