Microsoft Edge Could Trump Chrome On Android With A New Musthave Feature
summary
- For users, there is no parity between desktop and mobile versions of Chromium-based browsers.
- Microsoft is adding extension support to Edge for Android, allowing users to install useful tools and features before Chrome supports them.
- The UI elements of the Edge extensions have been refined and are working, indicating that they will likely be released in the future.
Google Chrome is based on the Chromium browser project and supports other popular Android web browsers such as Opera, Brave, Samsung Internet, Edge, Qi Browser and more. The system's universal foundation provides seamless synchronization between our operating systems, supported by smooth, familiar performance of most of the features common to these browsers. However, one of the biggest stumbling blocks is the lack of parity between desktop and mobile versions of Chromium-based browsers. Interestingly, Microsoft is about to take a giant leap by adding extension support to Edge for Android.
By default, the Chromium codebase does not support extensions for mobile browsers, so extensions available in the Chrome Web Store only work on desktop computers. The store offers a long list of useful tools, including screen readers, reading list managers, proofreaders, shopping assistants, and now artificial intelligence tools. While Google has improved Chrome for Android to make it consistent with tab groups as well as other desktop elements, support for extensions remains unchanged.
However, popular browser researcher and Chrome feature inspector @Leopeva64 of X (formerly Twitter) recently noted that Microsoft is working on extension support in the latest version of Canary Edge for Android. The latest version has a new flag that enables an extension button in the application.
edge://flags/#edge-extensions-android
Another user X said that there are two URLs you can go to to install several extensions available, including an ad blocker and a tool that forces dark mode on all websites.
edge://internal-extensions/
When enabled, the functionality for managing installed extensions, controlling permissions, and removing them if necessary is comparable to the Edge desktop experience. Leopeva64's screenshots show that you can click the three-dot button next to any installed extension to temporarily disable it, view more information about it, revoke/allow it, or remove it completely.
Vivaldi, a competing Chromium-based browser, told us that it has decided not to release extensions for Android. The company explained that since Chromium does not support built-in extensions, adding features is expensive for the company. In this case, Microsoft will likely invest significant resources and effort into development and testing before making the extensions available to all Edge users.
On the other hand, this is likely the final release as the UI elements for Edge extensions are polished and fully functional when the appropriate flags are enabled. Hopefully this will also encourage Google to make Chrome extensions available on Android, or better yet, build support directly into Chromium so that the changes benefit all browsers using the code base.
