The Microsoft Launcher Challenge: Microsoft Edge (Premium)

While I continue to find Microsoft Edge lacking on the desktop, I’m surprised to find that this browser excels on mobile. And it’s about to get even better.

There are probably some “learnings” in there, as Microsoft would say. But then, I already addressed that topic in What is Microsoft Edge? What Should it Be? (Premium). So let’s look at this from a different angle.

Not for the first time, a defeat in one market (mobile) has led a company (Microsoft) to recalibrate and do something (release Edge on Android and iOS) that it would never have done otherwise. What’s fascinating is that the side-effect to this set of circumstances has resulted in a better product, in this case. And a model that Microsoft should be emulating on the desktop.

(There are other big examples of this in the Microsoft sphere, but the most recent, perhaps, is Xbox. Microsoft has lost the console wars for three generations in a row and the outcome is the most gamer-centric platform strategy in the industry. It’s interesting how a company failing can often result in a better outcome for its users.)

Anyway… When I look at the Redmond-focused big-ticket additions to Microsoft Launcher on Android, Edge notches the top spot. There are Microsoft apps, like Skype, that I already use regularly. And Microsoft solutions, like Cortana, that I’ll never use explicitly (though I have no issues using Cortana and Bing through the Launcher). But web browsing is job one.

And here’s a weird thing to contemplate. I actually prefer Edge to Google Chrome on mobile.

The reasons for this are several. As are the reasons I’ve continued using Chrome on mobile regardless.

In the pro column for Chrome, Google’s browser seamlessly syncs my passwords (which I use frequently) between the desktop and mobile, and on Android, it likewise syncs these passwords to apps as well. It also syncs my bookmarks, which I admittedly use infrequently on mobile. And offers a superior web rendering engine across platforms.

On Android, Edge uses the Chrome rendering engine, which I really like. Indeed, this architecture is, I think, the correct one, as I noted in that previously-cited article. This lets Microsoft focus on the user experience rather than the plumbing. Smart.

And the Edge user experience on mobile is excellent.

It provides one major and arguably necessary feature, a reading mode, that Google refuses to add to Chrome. Indeed, Chrome doesn’t even support add-ins, so I can’t add one myself.

And it will soon provide another: Ad-blocking. Which, again, can’t be part of Chrome on mobile because of the whole add-in thing.

These two things, combined, make Edge even more interesting to me on mobile. And they’re related, when you think about it: Both make the experience of reading on the web more enjoyable and less cluttered. Today, I often share articles to Pocket specifically so I can just read it without all the junk you see on the web. (I also use a news app called Smart News that provides a similar, clean reading view or the same reason.)

So why am I not already using Edge on mobile?

I guess this is one of those classic decision compromises. In this case, Chrome’s password sync outweighs, if barely, its lack of a reading mode and/or ad blocker.

This isn’t an insurmountable problem: One can, of course, sync their Chrome passwords and bookmarks to Edge on the PC and then use them, in Edge, on mobile. I don’t really change/add passwords all that frequently. So it may not be a huge inconvenience.

To test this theory, I reimported by Chrome bookmarks, passwords, and other data into Edge on my PC. This is simple enough, but I then had to drag and drop the bookmarks into the right locations as well, since they go into an “Imported from Chrome” folder by default. And because I use the Bookmarks Bar (in Edge, the Favorites Bar) for all my saved sites.

This was a bit tedious since Edge doesn’t support multi-select when managing Favorites. But I got through it—yes, I’m a hero—and now it’s all configured the way I like.

After patting myself on the back for that sort-of accomplishment, I returned to my phone and configured Microsoft Edge as my default web browser.

We’ll see how it goes.