Opera Max, an app designed to help users reduce the amount of mobile data they use, has been removed from the Google Play Store and is being permanently discontinued. Reasons for the discontinuation of the application are a little vague, but Opera said on their blog that Opera Max veered a little too far away from their other products such as their browsers, and Opera also said that the need to focus on future products and services is another reason for the discontinuation. “The product had a substantially different value proposition than our browser products, and represented a different focus for Opera. We, therefore, focus on our browsers and other upcoming services.”
If you still happen to have Opera Max installed on your device it will still continue to work for a little while longer, but the application isn’t going to be getting any more updates or support, and Opera said they are going to pull the plug eventually. As to when that’s going to happen, Opera didn’t give a specific date or even timeframe. However, they did say that they will let their users know when server side support is switched off.
Opera Max for Android was launched by Opera in 2014, and while the app’s original purpose was to be used as a data saver, it received an update on October 6 of last year that introduced a new Privacy Mode that helped to keep the user’s connection to a website or app more secure. This service encrypted users’ app data and browsing traffic over insecure or public Wi-Fi networks. The Privacy Mode feature also showed which apps were a risk to the user’s privacy and which apps were using ad trackers, and from there, Opera Max allowed users to block such trackers. In December last year, Opera announced that Opera Max had surpassed 50 million users worldwide, and with that achievement, Opera unveiled a new VIP mode for the app. The VIP mode got rid of the time limit in which the Opera Max services would be enabled in exchange for putting advertisements on the user’s lock screen while their phone is charging.