Depending on the operating system you’re on, installing Vivaldi may differ a little.

Installation options

Click on Advanced in the top right corner of the installer window to reveal various options.

Language

Choose the language you want the browser’s user interface to be in. The chosen language will also be used as the default translation output language and websites may use it to determine which language to show the site content in.

Installation Type

• Install for all users – The browser will be installed for all user accounts on the operating system.
• Install per user – The browser will be installed only for the current user.
• Install standalone – The browser is self-contained within a single folder including all user data and, unless made available as a default app, won’t be added to the operating system’s registry. Choose this option, if you already have Vivaldi installed and want to create an independent or portable version of the browser. You can read more about the Standalone version here.

Additional options

• Destination folder – Shows the executable path for the browser. User data (browser profile) is stored in the default system location. In case of standalone installs, the destination folder will contain both the application files and user data.
• Make standalone Vivaldi available as a default app – Enabling this option will add the browser to the operating system’s registry, so it can be used to quickly open various file types from the operating system and other apps.
• Disable automatic updates (not recommended) – By default Vivaldi will download updates automatically and install them on the next browser restart. When disabled, you’ll have to check for and download updates manually.

To make Vivaldi the default browser:

In case you see Vivaldi is set as your default browser instead of Set as Default button in General settings, then Vivaldi already is your default browser.

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Default browser check on startup

When Vivaldi isn’t your default browser, every time you open the browser you’ll be asked whether you want to make Vivaldi the default browser. To disable that notification:

1. Go to Settings > General > Startup > Default Browser;
2. Disable Check on Startup.

Vivaldi for Flatpak is distributed through Flathub. You may find Flathub already built-in to your Linux distribution’s software center app. If not, click the button below or copy the following link: https://flathub.org/apps/com.vivaldi.Vivaldi.

How do I set Vivaldi for Flatpak as my default browser and/or as my mail client?

You must set your preferred applications through the desktop’s file and protocol association settings.

• For GNOME, go to System Settings > Default Applications > Web Browser > select Vivaldi.
• For KDE Plasma, go to System Settings > Applications > Default Applications > Web Browser > select Vivaldi.
• For LXQt, go to Settings > File and Protocol Associations > Default Apps > Web Browser.

The instructions will be similar for other desktop environments. If you do not see Vivaldi as an option after installing, please log out of your desktop session and back in again.

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How do I import data from another web browser?

Vivaldi for Flatpak cannot detect or import data directly from another web browser, such as Firefox, Google Chrome, or Opera, but you can import the files exported from the other browsers for Bookmarks, Notes, and more.

1. Go to Vivaldi menu > File > Import From Applications or Files menu.
2. Select what you want to import from the dropdown menu and locate the file.
3. Click Start Import.

To import logins and passwords:

1. Go to vivaldi://password-manager/settings.
2. In the Import passwords section, click on Select File.
3. Locate the file and open it.

For a more complete import, including browser History and Cookies, you can import into a native installation for Vivaldi, available from vivaldi.com, set up Vivaldi Sync in the native version, and then log in to Sync in Vivaldi for Flatpak.

Vivaldi Sync is available for free and uses confidential end-to-end encryption.

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I’m having trouble getting an extension to talk with an app on my system?

The NativeMessaging API — used by extensions to communicate with other installed software on your computer — is unavailable in Vivaldi for Flatpak. This can affect password managers, hardware-integration extensions, and other extensions.

If you require any such extensions, please install the native version of Vivaldi available from https://vivaldi.com/download/?platform=linux.

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How do I migrate my profile between Vivaldi for Flatpak and a native install?

The best way to migrate from one install to another, or to keep using both versions in sync with access to your Bookmarks, Logins, Notes, and other data, is to set up Vivaldi Sync.

Vivaldi Sync is available for free and uses confidential end-to-end encryption.

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Where is my User Data stored in Vivaldi for Flatpak?

Vivaldi for Flatpak stores data in the ~/.var/app/com.vivaldi.Vivaldi/config/vivaldi folder. Native Vivaldi stores data in the ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/vivaldi directory.

You may do a one-time migration by copying the folder from one to the other, on the same computer. You should not run two copies of Vivaldi with the same data directory.

See also How do I migrate.

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I ran into a crash! How do I contribute a crash log from Vivaldi for Flatpak?

If you can reproduce a crash, restart Vivaldi for Flatpak with development tools enabled, reproduce the crash, wait three minutes, and restart Vivaldi for Flatpak normally. You should see the crash log appear on the vivaldi://crashes page.

To launch Vivaldi for Flatpak with development tools, run the following command in a terminal: flatpak run --allow=devel com.vivaldi.Vivaldi.

Vivaldi Social brings together speakers of many languages. While it’s fascinating to know what people are up to in various parts of the world, it can be challenging if you don’t speak their language.

To help you cross language barriers, Vivaldi Social uses the translation service powered by Lingvanex, a service familiar to those who use the Vivaldi browser.

Translate posts

Posts on Vivaldi Social will be translated to the language you’ve chosen for your user interface. You can change the user interface language in Preferences > Appearance > Interface language.

To translate content:

1. Find a post on Vivaldi Social you want to translate.
2. Click on the Translate button below the post.
3. Click on Show original, to revert to the original text.

If a post is in a different language, but you don’t see an option to translate it, then the post’s author hasn’t set the correct language for their post. In that case, you can use the built-in translator in the Vivaldi Browser to translate the post.

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Make your posts translatable

To make sure your posts are translatable, always make sure you’ve chosen a matching language for your post’s text.

Set a default posting language:

1. Go to Preferences > Other > Posting defaults > Posting language.
2. Choose the language you post in most.

If you’re posting in a different language from your default, change the language settings in the post editor:

1. Below the text field, click on the current language code (for example, ).
2. From the drop-down menu, select the language you’re posting in.

Vivaldi Sync keeps your data accessible between your computers, tablets, and smartphones. Whether browsing on desktop, Android, iPhone, iPad, or in a car, we ensure that your Bookmarks, Passwords, typed History, open Tabs, Reading List, and Notes are always in sync.

Products: Vivaldi for desktop.

Web Panels is a special type of persistent tab that users can add to their side panel in Vivaldi.

A Web Panel loads a user-supplied URL in a narrow column in the side panel. Web Panels load with a mobile User-Agent to match their narrow mobile-like viewport. Documents and web apps optimized for mobile devices should perform well as Web Panels.

Web Panels can communicate numeric status information through Tab Notifications, and other status information by dynamically updating their tab icons (“favicon”).

Potentially disruptive dialog-driven APIs, such as alert() and prompt(), are unavailable.

Web Panels run in a shared context with regular tabs. Web Panels cannot prompt the user for new permissions, but share granted permissions that have already been granted to their origin in a regular tab.

More powerful and integrated Panel experiences can be created using the chrome.sidePanel API, available to extensions.

Products: Vivaldi for desktop, Android, and iOS.

Adaptive Theme Colors let webpages set the accent color in the browser chrome, including the Title Bar, Tab Bar, Address Bar, Status Bar, and more. For example, to apply a light matcha green color theme to the browser chrome:

<meta name="theme-color" content="#8ba888">

Vivaldi uses the first named <meta> element in the document.

Adaptive Theme Colors is enabled by default. The feature may be disabled by custom themes.

In Vivaldi for desktop and Vivaldi for Android, you can set different colors for light and dark theme color preferences using the appropriate media queries. For example, to apply a light matcha green theme color in light mode and a dark matcha green theme color in dark mode:

<meta name="theme-color" content="#8ba888" media="(prefers-color-scheme:light)">>
<meta name="theme-color" content="#44624a" media="(prefers-color-scheme:dark)">

In Vivaldi for Android and Vivaldi for iOS, dynamic updates to the content properties are ignored. The theme color on these platform is only set during the initial document initialization.

In Vivaldi for desktop, rapid changes to the theme color may be delayed. You should ensure that your document does not change its theme color too often

The hue or saturation of some theme colors may be adjusted slightly to ensure enough contrast with toolbar text and icons.

Products: Vivaldi for desktop-only.

Fast-Forward let users navigate from one document to the next related document in a series. Examples include navigating to the next page of a book, search result page, forum, or image in a gallery.

Fast-Forward is activated by pressing the Space key (enabled by default) at the bottom of the document, or by using the Fast-Forward button or Quick Command.

Vivaldi detects the next document in a series using a few different methods:

1. (Preferred web standard.) The first <link> element with a rel="next" property in the document.
2. The first <a> element with a rel="next" property in the document.
3. The last <a> element with the exact string “Next” or “Next Page” (or localized equivalents) in the document. The aria-label and title properties are also considered. Only the last 1000 <a> elements are considered.

Fast-Forward detection only happens during the initial loading of the document. Dynamic insertions later will not be detected by Vivaldi. Fast-Forward is updated dynamically when an element’s href property is updated.

Accidental Fast-Forward Navigation

Fast-Forward may be accidentally triggered on a compatible document, especially for documents and web apps like games that want to interact on the Space keyboard event.

Accidental navigation can happen when a document processes a keyboard event, but fails to consume the event after having acted on it. In your event handler, make sure to call preventDefault() to signal to the browser that the keyboard event has been acted upon and consumed. This happens automatically when using default form controls such as <input> and <textarea>.

It’s important to test for and ensure compatibility with Fast-Forward, Single-Key Shortcuts, and other keyboard accessibility features.

Products: Vivaldi for desktop

Vivaldi will source metadata for bookmarks from the HTML Standard metadata elements and from Open Graph Protocol metadata. This metadata is used to prefill values when the user creates a new bookmark.

The bookmark title will be sourced from:

1. The document title from the <title> element.
2. The Open Graph Protocol title (og:title).

The bookmark description will be sourced from:

1. The Open Graph Protocol description (og:description).
2. The document description from the <meta name="description"> element.

The Open Graph Protocol description is preferred as it is often a higher-quality summary of the page than the HTML Standard description. The latter is often overly long or misused to list page keywords instead of a written summary or description.

Vivaldi for Android and Vivaldi for iOS only use the HTML Standard elements.

Products: Vivaldi for desktop-only.

Vivaldi Calendar is a fully-featured calendar client built into the Vivaldi Browser. Users can subscribe to calendar feeds or add a single or group of events to their calendar schedules.

Calendar feeds and event files both use the iCalendar (RFC 5545) file format.

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Prompt to add events to Vivaldi Calendar

To prompt a user to add an event to their calendars, create a link using the https (recommended) or http URI scheme. Example:

https://example.com/staff-meeting.ics

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Prompt to subscribe to the calendar in Vivaldi Calendar

To prompt a user to follow a new calendar feed, create a link to it using the webcal URI scheme. Example:

webcal://example.com/holidays.ics

Vivaldi will assume and only supports the HTTPS protocol for calendar subscriptions.

Vivaldi polls calendar subscriptions for updates every 10 minutes. Please ensure your calendar server sets appropriate HTTP cache response headers and supports cache-revalidation to reduce the load on the server (see RFC 9111).