A slide from Ignite session video shows that Microsoft is working to move Edge to a common codebase for the desktop, Android, and iOS versions later this year(Abhay Venkatesh/Neowin)

Microsoft has made a significant change to Edge’s user interface. Today, the Edge web browser is two separate browsers in one. One for the Windows desktop and one for mobile devices. Over the past year, Microsoft has been working on merging those two experiences into a single code base. Microsoft has been slowly rolling this out over the past year, and today, they’ve revealed the next big step in that direction: to bring the Edge browser to the iPhone, iPad, and MacOS platforms. In doing so, they’ll finally have a unified experience between the desktop version of Edge and the iOS and MacOS mobile versions of Edge.

How Microsoft Plans to Move Edge to a Common Codebase?

For Edge to take advantage of its advantages, Microsoft needs to be able to work together on common code. But how does that happen? One of the company’s current strategies is to keep Edge open-source and work with various open-source communities worldwide to build open-source projects. This plan could take years, and many questions remain to be answered. However, Microsoft hopes to solve some of those issues and keep its current Edge development roadmap. It’s also planning to use Edge as a base for other projects.

How Microsoft is developing a new version of Edge for Android and iOS, which will be based on the same codebase as the Windows version?

Microsoft is developing a new version of Edge for Android and iOS, which will be based on the same codebase as the Windows version. The mobile browser is getting a brand-new interface and a dark theme, but the main focus will be security. “We’ll add the ability to delete browsing history in the browser and remove cookies,” said the company. “This will mean you’ll only need to sign in once to access your Microsoft account across all your devices. We’re adding other privacy features too, like blocking websites from tracking you and protecting the content of emails and chats from being spied on.”

 Why did Microsoft decide to do  Microsoft is working to move Edge to a common codebase for the desktop, Android, and iOS versions later this year?

To address Microsoft Edge being just a part of Windows 10, it announced plans for a common code base allowing Edge to run on all operating systems. The change will occur when Windows 10 is installed, and no new installations of Windows will require users to install Edge separately. Microsoft is also making changes to the look and feel of the browser to make it more user-friendly and give it its distinct look. The company hopes these changes will make the browser more attractive to enterprise users and regular consumers.

Conclusion

In conclusion, to move Edge to a common codebase for the desktop, Android, and iOS versions later this year, we will need to take the following actions:

• Move the common code into a separate repo.
• Refactor the repo to enable incremental development.
• Make the new code compatible with existing Windows Store apps.
• Maintain both branches in parallel.

Once this is achieved, the project team can update the desktop, Android, and iOS versions simultaneously, improving developer productivity.

FAQs

1. What is Microsoft’s plan for Edge?

 Microsoft plans to unify the codebases for Edge on Windows 10, Windows Phone, and the web.

2. What does this mean?

This means Edge on Windows 10 will have the same code as Edge on Windows Phone, and both can share the same bugs and updates.

3. When will this happen?

Microsoft is planning to have this done by the end of this year.

4. What does it mean when Microsoft says “common codebase”?

 Common codebase implies that Microsoft is moving to a single codebase for its Edge browser on all three platforms (Windows, Android, and iOS).