Say Goodbye to Opera Max because It Just Got the Axe

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 14 Aug 2017

Opera Max, the Android app that uses compression technology to help you save data and get up to 50% more from your data plan, has been discontinued. The app is no longer featured on Opera.com and it’s no longer listed on Google Play.

If you already have Opera Max on your Android, don’t expect any further updates or upgrades and do expect a termination of server-side support notification anytime soon.

Back in December 2013, Opera Software introduced Opera Max, a mobile app that made an enticing proposition: what if you could use less data and stretch out your (limited) data plan by as much as 50%? By using a virtual private network (VPN), Opera Max would redirect traffic through Opera’s compression servers and optimize videos, images, and text to use less data.

On top of making it possible to use less data while surfing the web, Opera Max also told you precisely how much data you saved and it even pointed the finger at all the apps that use a lot of data.



In time, the Opera Team kept on working on Opera Max and kept on adding new features.

In May 2015 they introduced a new Material Design and the option to block any app from using mobile data by restricting it to use Wi-Fi only.

In April 2016 they added support for Android tablets.

In November 2016 they introduced a new Privacy Mode and the option block app trackers that might compromise your privacy.

In December 2016 they celebrated 50 million active users and introduced VIP mode.

In May 2017 they released version 3.0 which introduced a new design and added data savings for Facebook.

Version 3.0 will forever be remembered as the last major update for Opera Max. On Monday, August 14, Opera announced that it decided to discontinue the data-saving Opera Max app and focus on its "browsers and other upcoming services" instead.

"Opera has now decided to discontinue Opera Max," announced the Opera Team via its official blog. "The product had a substantially different value proposition than our browser products, and represented a different focus for Opera. We, therefore, focus on our browsers and other upcoming services."

Opera Max is no longer featured on Opera.com, but you can still access its official page if you know the link. And on a similar note, Opera Max is no longer listed on Google Play but you can still access its Google Play page if you know the link.

Existing Opera Max users can keep using the app, but that won’t last for long. "The Opera Max service will remain intact for our existing users for a period of time. We will inform these users about the termination of server-side support in due time," said the Opera Team.



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