Opera brings its gesture-heavy Coast browser to the iPhone

Those looking for alternative browsers on their iPhone now have another option: Opera’s Coast app, a gesture-heavy browser which it first introduced on the iPad.

Coast features a dark, minimalistic look with a strong focus on tiles. This means that instead of having to type in a URL every time you want to access a site, you can just tap on tiles. When you’re in a site and want to exit it, all you have to do is tap on the ‘home’ button, while to access the sites you already have open, just tap on the bottom right.

As Opera notes: “The iPhone was made for having all screen real estate within a thumb’s reach, and Opera Coast takes this idea one step further. Gestures take care of practically all of the navigation needs, with the rest handled by a bare minimum of conveniently placed buttons. Two, to be exact.”

To this extent, the Coast browser has revamped the search function as well. In the Coast browser, you can type in your search words and related terms will appear, as well as site suggestions in the form of tiles. What’s more, Coast stores the sites you’ve visited as tiles at the bottom of the page, and you can store the sites you frequently visit as a tile that appears immediately when you access the browser.

Using automatic iCloud syncing, Opera Coast also lets you sync favorite sites on your iPad to your iPhone.

➤ Opera Coast: iOS

Headline image via Opera