Mobile browser Opera Mini has added a "video boost" feature for Android that it says reduces the size of video data, to lessen video loading time and combat buffering delays, plus extend the life of a mobile data plan.
The release aims to bring smoother video viewing and data savings to almost 120 million users on Opera Mini for Android, Opera's biggest user base.
Opera Mini brings the new feature to Android a year after it was introduced on the iOS platform.
The company says stalled videos create frustration and waste time, and watching from a mobile or tablet can quickly chew through a data plan. Unstable or congested networks also cause a poor, choppy video viewing experience, it adds.
"Video boost is a vital feature for video fans or those on limited mobile networks, handsets or data plans," says Nuno Sitima, SVP, head of mobile browsers at Opera.
According to Opera Mini, mobile video consumption is growing globally, and video boost helps today's content meet this demand.
The Ericsson Mobility Report for 2016 released prior to Mobile World Congress last month notes delays in loading Web pages and videos cause mobile users' heart rates to rise an average of 38%. Six-second delays to video streaming caused stress levels to increase by a third, it adds.
A 2015 study by Conviva showed viewers have little patience for video interruptions: 75% of viewers abandon poor-quality video in four minutes or less, and 33% within 30 seconds.
With the Opera Mini feature, users will have to enable "video boost" manually in the browser's "high savings mode", which results in videos loading faster.
In high-savings mode, Opera Mini will automatically turn off data compression when it detects WiFi, to take full advantage of the high-quality Internet connection. Opera Mini now lets users re-size images in the browser before they upload them to the Web.
The company explains that re-scaling an image - for instance, from 2 240x1 680 to 800x600 pixels - reduces the file size, so that users can save data and increase the success rate for uploads on poor networks.
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