Opera's latest update removes custom zoom controls for sidebar apps

The sidebar feature on Opera allows you to access messaging and media apps without leaving your current tab. Until a recent update, the zoom percentage used to sync with the main browser tabs. Now, the scaling is fixed at 100%. As a result, many apps appear oversized or undersized for users who use custom zoom scaling on sidebar apps.

You can find several reports of this in the Opera community and r/OperaGX. The change isn’t isolated to one version; both Opera and Opera GX are affected.

I’ve checked for this change on both browsers. Reducing or increasing the zoom percentage in a regular tab no longer affects the sidebar apps. The usual keyboard shortcuts for zoom in/out don’t resize the sidebar view either.

I’ve also looked for any potential options under sidebar settings, but there’s no option to customize the zoom. Changing the font settings under “Opera appearance settings” doesn’t help with the issue, since it’s related to scaling.

The reason for these issues with the scaling on the sidebar apps is a recent change in version 132. Zoom controls for sidebar panels are no longer available, and the default value is set at 100%.

For instance, if you set your tab’s zoom to 150%, the sidebar view will remain at 100%. Subsequently, setting the zoom of your tabs to 75% will still result in sidebar panels having 100% as the scaling. To those who frequently change zoom levels, this results in undersizing or oversizing of elements in the sidebar.

Opera employees have confirmed in several replies online that there’s no manual way to adjust the zoom of sidebar panels anymore. The manual controls for zoom have been completely removed from panel view (sidebar apps).

Understandably, many people were disappointed about this loss of functionality. The staff has reportedly forwarded user feedback to the Opera team regarding the backlash. However, since this appears to be an intentional update rather than a bug, it is currently unclear if or when the change will be reverted.

In other Opera news, the GX browser recently celebrated its 7th anniversary by implementing the internet’s popular 67 meme into websites through a mod. We covered that here.

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