Microsoft Edge On Android - Was Chromium The Right Engine/Platform?

[GreaseMonkey255]

Hey everyone,

Microsoft recently announced an upcoming beta program for their Microsoft Edge browser app for Android to fully expand the "Windows on all devices" theme. It is curious why they based their app on the Chromium engine, as shown in this blog post:

https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2017/10/05/microsoft-edge-ios-android-developer/

I would think that they would choose the Firefox open source engine over Chromium for a number of reasons:

• Chromium has no browser extension support, while Firefox does.
• Firefox includes a higher amount of user customization comparable to the desktop version.
• Firefox has better private browsing features.

Maybe I'm just playing favorites here, and maybe not. Which engine do you think Microsoft should have based their Edge browser for Android on, or do you think that it would be fine as-is?

 

[Zachary Boddy]

I think Microsoft played it safe by choosing Chromium. Maybe it's not the best way to have easy access to all the fancy features that Firefox does, but Firefox is barely a blip on the Android radar. Microsoft went with the guaranteed integration, the guaranteed support, the guaranteed performance. They'd probably have a harder time getting Firefox to play nice with what Microsoft is wanting to do with Edge.

 

[rhapdog]

Glad I found this thread. I was trying to find out if Edge would support the extensions eventually for the Android version, and just discovered the answer is no, according to the OP.

Thanks for saving me the headache. I suppose I'll be sticking to Firefox for my Windows Tablet and for my Android phone. I have to have Enpass integration with the browser, and Edge only allows it on Windows.