Microsoft today officially made previews of its upcoming Chromium-based upgrade for Edge available to developers and anyone who wants to test it. This comes after the company announced the shift back in December, with screenshots and preview builds leaking on the internet soon after.
With the new Chrome-based Edge, you get an experience that’s familiar to any Google Chrome user. A similar tab bar at the top displays open web pages and bookmarks, while menu buttons live to the right. The browser can sync all of your content such as passwords, extensions, search history, favorites, and more directly from Chrome for an easy transition. To differentiate itself a bit, Microsoft uses its Fluent Design system that takes advantage of white space and transparency.
I’ve been using a leaked version of the Edge preview, and everything seems to work the way you’d expect. In other words, it works exactly like Chrome but with some added Microsoft flair. You get better support for your Microsoft account along with tighter integration with Windows. If you’re familiar with Chrome, you’ll fit right in with this new version.
Right now, there are two different Edge previews you can test. There’s the Canary build that updates every day and the Development build that updates weekly. Both currently only work on Windows 10, but support for Windows 7 and macOS will be added in the future. You can test out the new version of Edge right here. A future Beta channel will be available at a later date.
