Opera 32 introduces animated themes

Opera introduced several changes in the most recent Opera Developer version 32.0.1899.0 including support for animated themes in the web browser.

Animated themes are a controversial topic and it seems that users either like them or hate them but that there is little middle-ground when it comes to them.

Opera's implementation adds themes to the browser's new tab page and the main change in Opera 32 is that animated themes can be installed in the browser now.

The company has released a -- rather low res -- theme that is animated for Opera 32 that you can install if you run it.

The theme that Opera Software released has a size of 6.8 Megabyte and is the only video theme currently available for the web browser.

Once installed, it displays a video of a fireplace when you load the new tab page in the browser. The video has no sound and it is unclear if that is supported by the theme. It is likely however that sound is not supported as it would surely be distracting.

I have created a short video of the video theme for Opera which you can play below if you are interested in seeing a live version of the theme and not only a screenshot of it.

Opera Software notes that it has not yet optimized cpu usage when video themes are used in the browser so expect higher than usual cpu usage after installing animated themes in the browser.

Opera has not published information that provide details on how animated themes are created for the browser.

The feature itself reminds me of Dreamscene, animated desktop backgrounds, that Microsoft introduced in Windows Vista. In fact, Dreamscene was one of the few Vista Ultimate exclusive features.

Opera users can use the internal update mechanics to update the browser to the latest version or download it from the Opera Desktop team blog directly where links for all supported operating systems are provided.

This particular version of Opera introduces other features such as password syncing to the browser.

Closing Words

I'd never use animated themes in a browser or the operating system as I find them too distracting. On top of that, they use more resources than regular themes or the default look and feel a browser ships with.

Now You: What is your take on animated themes?