Vivaldi’s Accordion tab stacks expand when you need them and hide when you don’t

At the start of June, Vivaldi released its 4.0 update, which added features like a translation tool to the privacy-focused browser. Its new 4.1 update is a smaller release but still adds a handful of handy features, including a new way to organize tabs.

Like Chrome, Vivaldi allows you to group multiple tabs to restore some semblance of order to your tab bar. In Vivaldi, those groups are called stacks. Before 4.1, you had two ways of using them. You could opt for either the compact view or the two-level one. In the latter case, the browser adds a bar that displays the tabs you have in that stack. The compact view, by contrast, only hints at the number of websites you have pinned to the same group.

The new “Accordion” stacks Vivaldi is introducing today give you a third option that is something of a compromise between its two siblings. The icon that represents the group will automatically expand when you click on it. Instead of on a second bar, you’ll see all the included tabs to the right of that icon. In that way, you can get context about your tabs without them taking up an entire extra element of the interface.

The other major feature the company is adding with 4.1 is called command chains. In Vivaldi, you can press “F2” (or “Command E” on Mac) to bring up a command-line interface, allowing you to quickly access most features without digging through the menu for the relevant option. Command chains allow you to group multiple actions and assign a name to them. Typing the name of the chain in the command interface will execute the included actions in a sequence. With more than 200 actions available, you have a lot of flexibility. For instance, you can create one that enables both fullscreen and reading modes at the same time. You can also assign the sequences you make to a custom keyboard shortcut or mouse gesture.

Outside of those features, 4.1 adds a timer in reader view that estimates how long it should take you to work your way through an article. Lastly, the browser’s Windows client will now install new features in the background automatically. There’s an option to turn off “silent updates” in the settings menu. You can try Vivaldi 4.1 today.