[Tip] Enable Auto-Hide Sidebar in Opera Web Browser

This article will help you in enabling a hidden secret feature called “Auto-hide the Sidebar” in Opera web browser.

Opera web browser comes with a sidebar feature which helps users in accessing many useful tools and apps easily and quickly using a single mouse click. The sidebar is displayed in form of a vertical toolbar at the left-side of the browser window and contains lots of icons to use. Some of these icons include Facebook messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Media player, etc. You can also access Opera Settings, history and bookmarks quickly using the Sidebar.

By default the sidebar is enabled and visible at the left-side in Opera but users can disable or remove the Sidebar by right-clicking on the sidebar and selecting “Hide sidebar” option.

Did you know Opera sidebar comes with a secret Auto-hide feature which can be enabled to automatically hide and show the sidebar? It’s a hidden secret feature which can be activated and enabled by modifying a secret preference/flag in Opera.

Once you enable auto-hide sidebar feature, you can right-click on the sidebar and select “Automatically hide sidebar” option as shown in following screenshot:

As soon as you turn on auto-hide feature, the sidebar will become hidden. Now whenever you need to access the sidebar, you can hover the mouse cursor over the left-side of the browser window and the sidebar will become visible on your screen.

This feature might be very useful for people who want to use the sidebar in Opera but don’t want to waste the screen area.

If you also want to enable and use auto-hide sidebar feature in Opera web browser, following steps will help you:

1. Launch Opera web browser and type opera://flags in address bar and press Enter. It’ll open the hidden secret advanced configuration page called “Experiments“.

2. Now click inside “Search flags” text box and type autohide. It’ll show following option in the result:

3. To enable auto-hide sidebar feature in Opera, select “Enabled” from the drop-down box.

4. Opera will ask you to restart the browser. Click on “Relaunch now” button to restart Opera.

That’s it. You have successfully activated auto-hide sidebar functionality in your Opera web browser. Now right-click on the sidebar and you’ll get the new option “Automatically hide sidebar” listed in the context menu.

PS: In future, if you decide to disable and remove auto-hide sidebar functionality, restore the above mentioned flag value to Default or disabled.

Also Check:

[Tip] Remove User Account Icon or Button from Opera Toolbar

[Tip] Disable Tab Hover Cards (Fast Tab Tooltips) in Opera Browser