Microsoft’s new Chromium-based Edge browser, which is now available in preview for select Xbox Insiders, is getting support for mouse and keyboard input later this year. Xbox Insiders in the Alpha Skip Ahead ring can now test it after installing the latest OS build released on Friday, and mouse and keyboard support on Microsoft Edge is likely going to open up a lot more possibilities for Xbox gamers.
Even though a growing number of Xbox games such as Halo: The Master Chief Collection are getting support for mouse and keyboard input, you still can’t use a mouse on the Xbox Home dashboard or within the Xbox user interface, even though keyboard are supported for navigating the Xbox OS. Well, Microsoft’s Chromium-based Edge browser getting support for mouse input on Xbox is quite a big deal, and this could eventually make Xbox consoles quite competent as lightweight productivity machines.
Last week, Tom Warren from The Verge shared a video on Twitter showing the Microsoft Word web app working well on the Xbox version of Microsoft Edge. In a second video, he also showed that it’s possible to play Google Stadia games like Cyberpunk 2077 on Microsoft Edge with a mouse and keyboard, which is quite amazing.
and yes, Stadia works with mouse and keyboard in the Edge browser on Xbox 👍 pic.twitter.com/2RRcKShSaP
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) April 23, 2021
If you’re interested in testing mouse and keyboard input in the new Microsoft Edge on your Xbox, you’ll likely need to wait for a couple of weeks. The new Chromium-based Edge browser is still only available on the Xbox Insider Skip Ahead ring, which is currently invite-only. However, the new browser will eventually roll out to the other Xbox Insider rings before hitting general availability later this year.
Do you think Xbox consoles are about to become much more versatile thanks to mouse and keyboard support on the new Chromium-based Edge? Sound off in the comments below.
