Opera On iOS Ditches Touch Name In Latest Update

Long before there were smartphones, Opera made a name for itself with mobile web browsers running on devices you never thought could run such software. With the arrival of smartphones, however, Opera was slowly pushed to the sidelines as the likes of Chrome and Safari on iOS take center stage. Opera hasn't completely disappeared, of course, and is now doing a slight revamp of its looks and embracing a shorter name that gets rid of a legacy branding.

Once upon a time, Opera had slightly different names for its mobile browsers. There was Opera Mini, for example, which was built on the ancient Java ME platform used on some feature phones. Then there was Opera Mobile, the proper smartphone app that's different from Opera Touch, which was designed with touch interfaces in mind.

That confusing distinction does still exist but, at least for iOS users, that will no longer be the case. In its latest update, Opera is giving its iOS browser a visual refresh and a simpler name. No longer Opera Touch, the iOS Opera browser will just be named "Opera" and will ditch the purple icon for Opera's more iconic red.

Opera on iOS is also getting other visual updates, with a cleaner look. The company, however, assures that the same features are still there, just presented in a simpler way.

Opera for iOS also offers a quick way to connect phones to any other computer running Opera for desktops. Using a simple QR code, users can then share links, images, and files between the two devices without having to go the roundabout method of uploading to cloud services first.