Microsoft's unified Edge code means more features for mobile

Microsoft is unifying the codebases of Edge's mobile apps and Edge on the desktop.

What you need to know

• Microsoft is working to unify the codebase across all platforms.
• Right now, Edge is split across different codebases and versions on different operating systems.
• The unification could see the Android and iOS versions of Edge come closer to parity with the more up-to-date Windows version.

Microsoft plans to unify the codebases of Microsoft Edge across multiple operating systems. Right now, Edge apps on mobile platforms are based on different codebases than the desktop version. As a result of this, you see things like Edge on Android being based on version 77 while Edge on desktop is based on Edge 89. Microsoft aims to fix this, and to improve the efficiency of Edge's development across platforms, by unifying Edge codebases across platforms.

Not sharing a codebase creates redundancy of effort. For example, when Microsoft built the Collections feature for Edge, the feature was built for Edge desktop. Microsoft then had to recreate the feature to bring it over to mobile devices.

By unifying codebases on different versions of Edge, Microsoft can more easily share features across desktop and mobile versions of Edge. The unification also improves the engineering process.

Microsoft discusses unifying the codebases across the different versions of Edge in a video from Ignite 2021. The video was flagged up by Reddit user SumitDh (via Neowin).

Microsoft will release preview versions of Edge on iOS and Android with new codebases. Microsoft explains that it has worked on this processor for the past year and that we'll see public beta versions "in the coming months."

Download it now

Microsoft Edge

Free at Microsoft Free at App Store Free at Google Play

A worthy browser.

The new Microsoft Edge runs on Chromium, supports popular extensions, and regularly gets new features from Microsoft.