Email and calendar client integrated in the web browser: how Vivaldi Mail and Calendar work.
In the list of alternative web browsers there is Vivaldi. The name of him comes from the Europen composer and albeit based on Chromiumlike many other competing products including Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi has recovered many of the characteristics that characterized the rendering engine Presto used by the Opera browser.
Why Opera? Because the co-founder of the Vivaldi project, the Icelandic Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, presented the new browser in 2015-2016 after leaving the role of CEO at Opera Software. At his time we talked about Vivaldi as the new browser of the father of Opera.
Vivaldi is not completely open source: Being a Chromium-derived browser, any changes you apply are always made public.
However, the browser uses third-party components and an exclusive user interface that developers don’t want to see in derivative products. The decision not to fully open the Vivaldi source is motivated by the development team.
Vivaldi browser with built-in email client: 90s scent
With the launch of the latest version of Vivaldi, the developer company of the browser – headquartered in Oslo, Norway – presented a strongly renewed product that also integrates a email client.
In the 90s, before the arrival of Internet Explorer and Firefox, the historian Netscape Navigator aimed to offer a “suite” that included not only the browser but other components including the email client. The project still exists today SeaMonkeyborn as a continuation of the idea behind the Mozilla Application Suite.
In 2022, the developers of Vivaldi decided to go down that road again to meet the needs of those looking for a wider range of features in a web browser. So Vivaldi Mailavailable as an integral part of the browser and not as a standalone product, presents itself to users as an alternative to names like Outlook, Thunderbird, Mailbird, and so on.
At a time when many users prefer to access their mailboxes from the Web or install an app to manage them all together from smartphones, Vivaldi Mail approaches traditional email clients with a product that allows you to manage multiple accounts simultaneously but is linked hand-in-hand with the browser interface.
In another article we have seen why and when to choose an email client rather than a webmail.
In addition to Vivaldi Mail, the browser also integrates a module for managing the calendar and a reader of feed RSStools that many companies have set aside in the area of ”push notifications at any cost” and continuous interaction with users but which many continue to appreciate.
Vivaldi is a browser that one likes or dislikes at first glance: von Tetzchner’s idea was to develop a product that could be customized to the extreme, in total antithesis with the “austerity” of Google Chrome. Even today, Vivaldi’s settings screen is overloaded with options of all kinds to the point that those accustomed to the minimalism of the most famous browsers might feel more lost than at ease.
Even Vivaldi Mail is no exception: the email client integrates every possible adjustment for a program that has to manage the email. There are no simplistic visions: the advanced user will find everything he expects to find.
Vivaldi Mail: how the mail client works
After downloading and installing Vivaldi, you can activate your email and calendar client by pressing the button ALT on the browser main screen then select Settings.
In the tab General in the left column is the box Enable Mail, Calendar and Feed: by checking it, the toolbar located vertically on the left edge of the screen will be enriched with three new icons.
As soon as you click on the icon post of Vivaldi Mail you are asked to configure an email account: the application supports both the IMAP and POP3 protocol. In the case of mail accounts that allow authentication with the OAuth protocol (for example Google and Microsoft accounts), Vivaldi Mail is able to recognize them by presenting the possibility of log in without a password.
Since May 30, 2022, Google has blocked access to Gmail with less secure apps in order to push the use of OAuth authentication.
With Vivaldi Mail just type the email address to configure, choose IMAP then click on the button Usa OAuth highlighted in the figure.
In the case of Google, you are asked to log in to your account and authorize Vivaldi Mail to manage your entire account mail archive as seen in the image below.
In this way Vivaldi receives a token authorization that allows him to manage e-mail without even knowing the username and password. In the case of Google, the permission granted to Vivaldi can be revoked at any time using the Apps page with access to your account.
However, it is possible to configure any IMAP or POP3 mail account in Vivaldi Mail: the application tries to independently establish the correct incoming and outgoing mail servers (SMTP), but it is always possible to proceed manually.
Vivaldi Mail integrates a powerful functionality of research of mail messages: by ticking the box Download messages for offline viewing and searching it ensures that the email archive is available even in the absence of a network connection with the possibility of identifying the messages of interest.
Once you have set the name that must appear as the sender in your messages, you should also specify one business default otherwise Vivaldi Mail adds its own sentence by default at the bottom of each email. It is also possible to specify whether the signature should be shown at the bottom of the message or at the top, which is useful if you are used to writing the reply at the top of a reply email.
For the rest, the Vivaldi Mail mail client is truly complete: through a single compact interface it allows you to manage even dozens of accounts, allowing you to choose which one to use and consult from time to time.
The software allows you to manage custom mail foldersto assign labels and “flags”, to archive, move, delete the various messages very quickly.
The mail client takes the form of a tab within the browser: you can switch to its contents at any time just as you would a page on any Web site.
Calendar management with Vivaldi
Using a very similar approach to the email client, Vivaldi can also manage local calendars, web calendars, Google, CalDAV and Vivaldi.net.
As seen previously, Vivaldi can access the content of accounts that support OAuth: just provide the corresponding permission and commitments and activities will be immediately manageable.
All in all Vivaldi Calendar it is one of the most complete and versatile applications in its category, so much so that like the email client, setting aside the actual browser, it can be considered an independent application.
The calendar allows the use of different views: year, month, week, day and agenda; offers different options to manage dates and times, recurring appointments, by location, description and URL, a task mode with checkboxes, private and shared calendars.
By right clicking on the calendar icon in the vertical bar on the left then on open in you can choose to open Vivaldi Calendar in its own tab or in an independent window separate from the rest of the browser.
– Images used as thumbnails1,2 they are from Vivaldi Technologies.
