Another week and another bunch of updates from both Microsoft and Google when it comes to their respective browsers - Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. This time around, there's a much overdue timesaving endeavor from Microsoft for anyone who works between multiple devices and a privacy-conscious change from Google. It's this continuing battle of attrition between two of the best web browsers that's keeping things interesting for everyone.
Microsoft's update for Edge is potentially a very overdue one. It's finally making it easy to share tabs between multiple devices. That means you can start reading a webpage on your PC (one of the best home computers, right?) before switching over to your laptop, smartphone or tablet that's also running Microsoft Edge. It's a concept that's been available on Chrome, Firefox, and Safari for a number of years now so it's about time that Edge caught up, but it's certainly a useful one. Better later than never, after all. It'll certainly help in the ongoing Chrome vs Edge battle for web browser supremacy.
Alongside that is a new laptop and smartphone icon in the address bar too. Tapping on it shows all you devices where you have Edge installed and you're logged into the same Microsoft account. That could be useful if you've lost track of where you're logged in. Ready to use it? Update to the latest version of Edge now. It might not be there immediately but it should show up in the next few days.
In the meantime, use that time to check out what's going on over at Google Chrome. It's now more private on iOS thanks to its Incognito mode adding a new if experimental privacy feature - Face ID support.
Previously, if you browsed a website in Incognito mode so that cookies and your browsing history weren't saved, if you left your smartphone unlocked, someone could pick up your phone and see what tabs you have open. Now, the browser will require a user to authenticate using Face ID when trying to open Incognito tabs, giving you an extra layer of protection.
As it's an experimental feature, you'll need to activate it by opening Chrome and entering chrome://flags before finding the Experiments page and enabling Device Authentication for Incognito but it's certainly appealing. Of course, it's only available for iOS for now (and don't forget the iPhone 12 did top our list of the best smartphones) but we'd expect it to roll out elsewhere in the future.
For now, if you have an iOS device, give it a try and see if you feel more secure. And while you're at it, enjoy those overdue tab sharing options via Microsoft Edge too. Aren't web browser updates wonderful?
