A couple of years ago, Microsoft made a surprising announcement in which they revealed that they would be rebuilding its Edge browser by using the Chromium platform. For those unfamiliar, Chromium is an open-source web browser platform created by Google and is what the company bases its Chrome browser on.
For those who have been looking forward to the browser’s release, you’ll be pleased to learn that the new Edge browser is now available for download via Microsoft’s website. It is also available for macOS devices if you’re running a Mac computer. For users who are considering adopting the new Edge browser, note that it does share similar functionality to Chrome.
For example, users can sync browsing history between multiple devices. There is also extensive extension support, where essentially any extension that you can run on Chrome, you should also be able to use on Edge. That being said, for now the new Edge will remain an optional download for users.
However, Microsoft is expected to eventually release a Windows 10 update that will update the current build of Edge to the new version. We imagine that this shift should give Microsoft a competitive, well, edge as it will be the default browser on new computers, and the compatibility with websites and extensions could mean that users won’t need to download Chrome in the future.