Microsoft's New Chromium-Based Edge Browser is Ready for Mac and Windows

It's a new era for Microsoft Edge, with versions for iOS and Android, too

By
Rob LeFebvre
Robert M LeFebvre
Writer, Editor
Rob LeFebvre has been a freelance technology writer for 10 years and an educator for 20. His articles have appeared in 148Apps, Cult of Mac, Engadget, and many others.
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Robert M LeFebvre
Updated January 15, 2020

What: Microsoft's new Edge browser, based on Chromium, is now available on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android

How: You can download the app directly from Microsoft

Why Do You Care: Microsoft has based the new Edge on the same codebase as Google's Chrome, using the open-source Chromium. This new browser promises more privacy, security, and modern browser features than the original Edge.

Microsoft's new Chromium Edge browser
Microsoft

Those of you looking to try out the latest Edge browser can now download it directly from Microsoft for Windows (7, 8, 8.1, and 10), macOS, iOS, and Android. This marks a milestone for the Redmond-based tech company, too: Edge is now based on Chromium, the open-source browser software that powers Google's own Chrome browser.

While a pre-Chromium Edge browser has been available as a beta for the Mac since May of 2019, this marks the first new version that works across all major OSes (minus Linux, so far).

Microsoft promises more privacy, transparency, and control over your data with Chromium Edge, adding Defender SmartScreen to protect users from things like phishing schemes and malicious software.

There's also already a bunch of Extensions for the new Edge, and if you use it on Windows, you'll be able to stream Netflix in 4K Ultra HD, as well. Coming soon is a new feature called Collections, which integrates with Office 365 "to collect, organize, share, and export web content to Word or Excel."

While Google has all but won the browser wars with almost 70 percent of the internet using its ubiquitous Chrome browser, Microsoft still drives a lot of users to its built-in options. Making Edge a more useful, Chromium-based experience can only help the company stay relevant here.