Opera has officially released its Opera Max app for Android. In the latest version the tool not only compresses content that is downloaded over mobile networks, but also pages that are requested through Wifi access points.
According to Opera internet on public Wifi access points is often as "slow as a turtle". Therefore the Norwegian company has added the option "Wi-Fi savings" in its Opera Max app. When the feature is enabled the Opera browser will compress unencrypted content which should speed up the internet speed.
Opera already announced the Max app in February but then only registered users could use the test version. That restriction has now been lifted and Opera has released a stable version of the app that's available for everyone. The apps works by routing internet traffic through Opera's servers that then compress the content and pass it on to the user of the Opera Max app. The content that is pass on to the user consumes less bandwidth with the advantages of increased speed and lower bandwidth costs.
Encrypted content, such as traffic over HTTPS, doesn't pass the Opera servers and isn't compressed which means that when using many popular services there will be no advantage. E.g Google and Facebook have activated HTTPS by default. The Max app also provides insights in data usage per app and users can disable apps that consume a lot of data.
The service is and app are free but Opera has stated that it might become ad supported in the future. You can get the app on the Play Store here.
