How to break free from Chrome using Android Edge extensions

Earlier this year, Microsoft renamed Edge on mobile devices to “Microsoft Edge: AI Browser.” When I tried it out, I wasn’t too impressed with the actual AI browser’s capabilities. Copilot’s integration worked well for summarizing content like articles and videos, but it couldn’t handle the basic browser tasks I threw at it.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that Microsoft Edge was now available as an extension on Android. Suddenly I wanted to get back on the Microsoft Edge train. I dove headfirst into checking out these extensions. Although it’s still in beta, I’m starting to seriously consider using Edge on Android.

Get started with extensions for Microsoft Edge on Android

Not yet available in release branch

If you want to try this feature for yourself, visit the Microsoft Edge Canary page in the Android Store and download the app to your phone. The Canary branch of Microsoft Edge is where Microsoft tries out all the features before adding them to the main branch. You can see features the same day Microsoft releases them for testing, but apps may encounter strange behavior or bugs while the company works to resolve issues.

Once you’ve downloaded the app to your phone, open Microsoft Edge Canary and type “edge://flags” in the URL bar. Search for “Extensions” in the experiment window and look for the “Android Extensions” option. Set it to “Enabled” and restart Microsoft Edge. Once you’re back, press the three bars on the bottom right and long press on the menu that appears to add a new “Extensions” option to your panel. Open it and tap Manage Extensions to get started.

At the time of writing, the extensions option only supports preselected extensions, and there are currently only three options to choose from. However, the three extensions available (Dark Reader, Global Speed, and uBlock Origin) are some of the best Chrome extensions out there. All of these are worth trying. uBlock Origin in particular is included in our guide on how to ensure maximum privacy in Microsoft Edge.

The extension integrates well with Microsoft Edge

Easy to manage on the go

I tried out the extension in Microsoft Edge, and even though there were only three options, I was really impressed with what I experienced. I expected extension integration to be a little tricky, but it actually appears within Edge much the same way you find extensions in other Chromium browsers.

Once you enable an extension, you can adjust its settings by calling the extension from the Extensions menu. If you’ve used extensions before, you’ll quickly become familiar with the UI and can do everything you can do with extensions on Edge, just like you can in the Chromium browser. uBlock Origin’s element picker is also available. Once you enable the extension, you can start browsing and the extension works discreetly.

The extension works fine

There are no simplified versions of extensions, only the real thing

Once the extension is up and running, it works very well in the background. To test this, I disabled Microsoft Edge’s built-in ad blocker and browsed the web with both uBlock Origin and Dark Reader enabled.

I expected uBlock Origin on Android to struggle on some websites that are notorious for displaying a lot of ads, but I didn’t see a single ad. Similarly, when you visit a website that doesn’t have dark mode, Dark Reader launches and makes the website much easier on the eyes. This makes browsing the web much more comfortable for me than using Chrome.

So if you didn’t like the way Microsoft Edge worked on mobile in the past, you might want to give it a try. In fact, if you get a new Android smartphone and have a clean slate, we recommend using Edge instead of your default browser to see how it feels.

Microsoft Edge’s biggest feature is extension support

It’s understandable why Microsoft went all out to hype its AI browser. After all, artificial intelligence is a big topic these days. But I honestly think Edge will be even more successful on mobile if Microsoft fleshes out support for extensions. Despite this minimal testing implementation, I’m seriously considering using Microsoft Edge for all my mobile browsing. If Microsoft adds more extensions for people to use, or lets people get the apps they like, it’s sure to be a huge hit.