IOS / Android App of the Week: Microsoft Edge
If you’re using Microsoft Edge in any capacity, congratulations! You are incredibly rare, so much so that services like Statcounter don’t even have your browser in the top six.
You’d think Edge’s 1.86 percent market share – according to Statcounter at the time of this writing – would be slightly higher given that Microsoft is building the browser into Windows 10, and that’s the only option you have in a brand new, untouched version. OS. But that’s all. Nobody actually uses Edge, but that hasn’t stopped Microsoft from officially launching the Android and iOS version of the browser in November and rolling out support for iOS and Android tablets this week.
Why try Edge?
If you’re already married to Chrome or Firefox, persuading you to switch to a different browser — and Microsoft’s browser too — is probably useless, but at least we’ll try to present a reasonable argument for why Edge is interesting.
Once you launch Edge, Microsoft will ask you to sync the app with your existing Microsoft account, which is standard browser practice that allows you to share favorites, history, passwords, browser data, and settings between your PCs, smartphones, and tablets. Nothing new.
The browser itself has a nice streamlined design with navigation buttons at the bottom – a welcome sight for Safari and Firefox users and a slight tweak for Chrome fans.
By the way, Edge was just as fast as Chrome when we ran the JetStream Browserbench test on both iOS versions of both browsers, and it actually outperformed Chrome in the Browserbench speedometer test by about 20 percent. It’s incredibly easy to use for mundane tasks like adding or changing bookmarks and opening (or switching between) tabs.
Best Edge Feature: Add Tabs to Windows 10 PC
Microsoft’s Continue to PC feature works flawlessly. Assuming you’ve connected Edge and your other desktops or laptops to your Microsoft account, you can send whatever you’re viewing on your smartphone or tablet straight to one of your computers. The page will immediately appear in the Edge browser on Windows 10, and you sit down to continue reading (or browsing).
This trick is a one-way street (at least for now), so you can’t send the tabs you view in Edge on Windows 10 to your smartphone or tablet. We can only assume that Microsoft will address this issue in a future update.
Overall, Edge feels streamlined and minimal. There aren’t many options you can tweak if you want – much less than what you’ll find in Chrome, Firefox, or Safari. Edge is a bit inexperienced anyway, but it will be great for you if you’re already part of the Microsoft ecosystem. Other than that, it’s a fast and simple browser … if you’re persuaded to make the switch.
Do you have an iOS or Android app that you really like? Tell us about it: david.murphy@lifehacker.com .