Microsoft Edge gets PWA support and a bigger extension store
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Even if Microsoft Edge has been with us for quite some time now, many users avoided it since deep down inside they just viewed it as a reskinned Internet Explorer.
In fact, Edge didn’t get any more popular even when Microsoft transformed it into the default web browser. However, Microsoft Edge has come a long way down the evolutionary path, especially when it transitioned to a Chromium-based browser.
The browser‘s development continues actively, and these new features will surely spark the public’s interest, and raise its popularity.
Microsoft Edge gets plenty of functionality enhancements
The new Microsoft Edge has plenty of experimental features you should read about, but most of them are hidden in its flags menu.
The good news is that you don’t need to be a tech wiz to access them, as they are right there ready to be tested out.
New Microsoft Edge can auto-hide your address bar
One such great feature is the option of hiding your address bar when you enter the browser in full-screen mode. It was first revealed in a Twitter post, and it got users all excited.
This is something other browsers already have, and it is a feature that many users most likely asked for.
This feature is currently available in all Edge versions. This also includes all the Insider testing channels, along with the live version of the new Edge browser.
You can now install Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)
The moment Microsoft Edge switched to a Chromium-based architecture, it gained support for progressive web apps (PWAs) that users can install.
These are easy to install, as some websites can detect your browser and automatically prompt you to install their PWA. However, other websites require a more manual approach. Fortunately, that approach isn’t a lot harder at all.
Finally, PWA can be easily uninstalled by opening the edge://apps/ page and click on the x-icon next to any installed application to remove it from the system.
The Microsoft Edge extension store is getting larger every day
Another feature that makes Microsoft Edge a lot more viable is the continuously expanding extension store.
Microsoft launched the new Microsoft Edge Addons store with about 100 extensions. Now, with the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser available for about 2 months as a stable version, that number increased to well over 1000 extensions.
The main reason behind this exponential growth is the transition to Chromium architecture. This seems to make porting extensions to the new browser a whole lot easier.
These are just the first updates that Microsoft has planned for its browser. In the end, the main goal is to eventually make all users migrate to Microsoft Edge and finally put Internet Explorer to rest.
What feature are you excited to see in Microsoft Edge? Let us know what your expectations are in the comments section below.
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