In April, Opera revealed that it had "no major updates planned for the next few months" for its browser on Windows phones. The company said that the team that had been working on its app for Windows handsets were "now dedicating their time to our other apps on iOS and Android".

However, it added that it would continue to maintain Opera with bug fixes and important security updates - but today, the company has rolled out an update delivering a new feature that's likely to please many of its users on Windows phones.

Windows Blog Italia was first to spot the update, which introduces ad-blocking functionality. However, there's no official changelog yet, so it's not yet clear if Opera has made any other changes to the browser.

Opera added native ad-blocking to its desktop browser in March, allowing users to 'whitelist' certain sites - i.e. disabling ad-blocking for sites on a case-by-case basis.

However, its mobile implementation for Windows phones appears somewhat more basic, with a simple switch to enable or disable the feature, and no apparent means of whitelisting sites.

Opera Mini is available to download free from the Windows Store.

Source: Windows Blog Italia

UPDATE: Opera has now officially announced availability of the ad-blocker - and the good news is that it's also available in its browser on iOS and Android devices.

Editor's note: If you use adblocking software, we would greatly appreciate it if you whitelisted Neowin if your browser allows you to do so. Advertising enables us to continue the Neowin community. Neowin also offers subscriptions which remove advertising without the need for extra software.