Helium Browser adds various new features, including shortcut and keyboard customization, automatic updates

Helium has just released a myriad of new features and improvements. The company has added customizable keyboard shortcuts across platforms, automatic updates on Windows, and more.

Information about these changes was posted on X through the @heliumbrowser account.

A developer at Helium (and the co-founder of the company behind it), @uwukko, also highlighted key additions such as keyboard shortcut customization.

You can access these new features in the latest version of Helium (version 0.13.2.1). While macOS has had automatic updates for a while, those on the Windows camp have now received them as well. This addresses a long-standing pain point for Windows users, who previously had to manually download and install updates each time, as we highlighted here.

I’ve tested the key new features on the Helium browser, and here’s a list of the important changes.

1. Custom keyboard shortcuts: Under System -> Keyboard Shortcuts, there’s the option to add, modify, or reset combinations. Defaults are protected, and they remain in place.
   
2. Frameless mode: It was previously known as Zen mode, and it features a floating sidebar. While the feature was in beta earlier, you can now directly enable it through a toggle from Settings.
   
3. Better tab management: Users can copy one or multiple tab URLs. There’s also the option to hibernate tabs manually; you can choose specific ones to mute/hibernate. Copied URLs can also be formatted as a list.
   
4. Redesigns were made to toast notifications, and various other UI element refreshes.
5. Smoother animations throughout the browser.
6. Fingerprinting protections also received improvements. Developers fixed the algorithm and added more safeguards against attacks.
7. Improved QR code generation.
8. Kagi search now supports reverse image search directly from the image context menu.
9. Other bug fixes and refinements.

Beyond the desktop improvements, Helium’s Android version has also seen some progress. The latest Android build brings full Manifest V2 extension support, allowing desktop extensions directly from the Chrome Web Store. We covered that here.

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