What you need to know
- Opera’s gamer-focused browser, Opera GX is getting an anti-Valentine’s Day browser extension.
- The HeartBlocker extension helps users curate an online experience that’s free from love-themed images and texts.
- It comes with two modes, Normal-Mode and Emo Mode.
Valentine’s Day is upon us! Every year on February 14, people celebrate this special day by expressing love and affection to friends, family, and love interests through gifts, kind gestures, and more.Â
For some reason, Valentine’s Day is closely tied to red (I thought red stood for danger). I guess this is what people mean when they say they painted the town red — from clothes to red-themed gifts, including roses. The same is also reflected across the internet, and it can get overwhelming pretty quickly for some people.
If you’re not big on romance and want to avoid the “over-commercialized vomit-fest” that is Valentine’s Day, Opera’s got you covered. As you may know, Opera has a dedicated browser for gamers dubbed Opera GX. And now, the company has unveiled a new browser extension for the browser that’s designed to “keep your online experience free from love-themed text and images.”
The extension dubbed HeartBlocker ships with several features that will keep your browsing experience Valentine’s Day-free. Right off the bat is the Text Replacement feature which scans through online content and replaces lovey-dovey words and phrases with neutral terms. For example, it transforms the word kiss to mouth to mouth contact.
According to Opera’s product director, Maciej Kocemba:
“Love can be a touchy subject. Especially on 14th February. But with HeartBlocker you can now shield yourself from all that romance stuff and focus on the things that really matter. Like building up your team in Palworld. This Valentine’s Day why not love your browser and enjoy a completely amour-free online experience”
Opera GX is infusing AI capabilities to enhance the browsing experience for gamers. Like its parent company, the dedicated gaming browser will feature Aria, an AI assistant.
On the visual side of things, the extension ships with an Image Remover feature, which, as you might have guessed, helps eliminate overly pink/red images. It is complemented by the Monochrome Coloured Glasses tool, which lets users convert any part of a website from pink to another color.
The HeartBlocker extension ships with the Normal Mode and Emo Mode. The former is for users who aren’t as critical and annoyed by the existence of Valentine’s Day. As such, it only replaces text and images with neutral content. On the other hand, the latter is quite extreme and is the perfect companion for the heartbroken, as it replaces phrases and words like Valentine’s Day with harsh terms like “cursed day.”
