It’s official, Microsoft’s new Chromium-based Edge browser is now officially available on macOS in beta form. Microsoft is making the Canary channel, which gets daily updates, available on Macs today, with the Dev channel to follow soon. Installers for both the Canary and Dev channels actually leaked during Microsoft’s Build developer conference earlier this month, so it’s nice to see Microsoft finally catching up.
“With this initial release, we have made several changes to the user interface to align with the Microsoft design language whilst making it feel natural on macOS,” the Microsoft Edge team explained today. “Examples of this include a number of tweaks to match macOS conventions for fonts, menus, keyboard shortcuts, title casing, and other areas. You will continue to see the look and feel of the browser evolve in future releases as we continue to experiment, iterate and listen to customer feedback.”
One of the platform-specific features that the Edge team is looking to introduce in the future is support fo the MacBook Pro Touch Bar. As you can see in the GIF below, Microsoft plans to use the Touch Bar to display keyboard shortcuts, video playback controls, and more.
“For the first time, web developers can now test sites and web apps in Microsoft Edge on macOS and be confident that those experiences will work the same in the next version of Microsoft Edge across all platforms,” the Edge team explained. Microsoft Edge will also allow Mac users to install Progressive Web Apps and pin them to their dock as if they were native apps.
The Canary channel for Microsoft Edge is available on macOS 10.12 and above, and you can get it from the Microsoft Edge Insider website.
