From automatically engaging a “Panic Button” to syncing room lighting with the browser theme, the new Opera GX feature creates a dynamic and interactive smart home.
OSLO, Norway – September 11, 2025 – Your home has a new smart device, the browser itself. For the first time, a web browser can respond to events in a user’s physical space. With the launch of the new Smart Home feature, Opera GX connects the browser directly to a user’s smart home, allowing for a new level of environmental automation. Now, what happens in the room can control the browser, and what happens in the browser can control the room, creating new possibilities for browsing.
Opera GX Smart Home is an open-source solution based on a new MQTT API and browser extensions that utilize it to connect to the Smart Home hubs like Home Assistant, Homebridge, and Node Red. This compatibility ensures that Opera GX can be added as a new device within any smart home setup that supports this protocol. The entire solution is designed for ease of use and does not require complex technical knowledge from the user.
“The smart home has always been about controlling your lights or thermostat from your phone. We thought, ‘Why stop there?'” said Maciej Kocemba, Product Director for Opera GX. “The browser is the control center for most people’s digital lives. By making Opera GX a part of the smart home, we’re not just giving users a remote control, we’re giving their entire setup a brain that reacts to them. The possibilities, especially with our open-source approach, are exactly as wild as our users can imagine.”
Your room controls your browser
The integration works in a two way communication channel between Opera GX and other smart devices. What makes this feature distinct is that the Opera GX browser is not only used to control external devices, sensors and other smart products can be used to control the browser’s behavior.
This opens up a world of creative automations, where users can:
- Have a door sensor detect someone entering the room and automatically activate the Opera GX Panic Button, which swiftly hides the user’s browsing session from prying eyes.
- Sync the colors of smart bulbs and LED strips with the Opera GX theme for a coordinated setup.
- Prepare the room for watching movies by having the browser automatically dim the lights, stop background music, and close the window shades.
- Control laptop charging by using smart sockets to optimize battery health.
- Create custom automations, such as turning on a red light in the room to signal a heavy workload when numerous browser tabs are open.
- The open source extension allows the community to develop and share their own solutions.
Setting up the Opera GX Smart Home is a straightforward process for those who already have a smart home network. Users can navigate to the Early Bird settings in the options, enable MQTT support, and enter their MQTT broker address, port, and credentials if required. Once connected, they can install the Opera GX Smart Home Extension. For Home Assistant users, the Opera GX device will be automatically detected. Moreover multiple computers running Opera GX can be added to the same network and will be recognized as separate devices, even with identical extensions installed. For a more detailed installation guide, users can follow this link in the GitHub repository.
Download Opera GX by visiting www.opera.com/gx.
About Opera GX
Browser developed by Opera [NASDAQ: OPRA]. Since its inception in 2019, Opera GX has quickly become the browser of choice for millions of gamers seeking a more custom internet experience. Along with countless customization options including color themes, sound effects, background music, and a gaming-inspired design, GX includes CPU, RAM and Network Bandwidth limiters that make the browser less resource-hungry and leave more of the computer’s resources for gaming. The browser also includes a Hot Tabs Killer feature, which lets users kill the most resource-draining tabs, and GX Cleaner to purge those old unwanted files. Opera GX is the first browser that allows users to fully customize its appearance, themes, sounds, and audio effects during use, completely changing the browsing experience. Simply download one of over 9,000 mods to start enjoying a new look for the browser that suits your preferences.
About Opera
Opera is a user-centric and innovative software company focused on enabling the best possible internet browsing experience across all devices. Hundreds of millions use Opera web browsers for their unique and secure features on mobile phones and desktop computers. Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Oslo, Norway, Opera is a public company listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol OPRA. Download the Opera web browsers and other Opera products from opera.com. Learn more about Opera at investor.opera.com.