Master Microsoft’s Edge browser on your iPhone or Android device

Alphr Read more May 24, 2018

Microsoft has launched a Preview version of its Edge browser for Android phones and iPhones, which is well worth trying. It automatically syncs web pages you save to your favourites and online articles you add to your Reading List across your phone and PC’s Edge browser. Its Reading View feature makes articles easier to read and lets you search the web using your voice. There’s also a ‘Continue on PC’ button that lets you send articles from your phone to your PC.

Master Microsoft’s Edge browser on your iPhone or Android device

Getting started with Edge for smartphone

Once you’ve downloaded the app from the app store or Google Play open it, tap ‘Sign in’, then log in using your Microsoft account. It’s easy to customise the default website tiles that appear on your homepage. To remove a tile, tap and hold it, then tap Remove. To add a new tile, search for and open the web page you want, tap the Hub icon, then tap ‘Add current page to Favorites’ at the top.

To save an online article to your Reading List, open the article, tap the Hub icon, the Reading List icon, then tap the ‘Add to Reading List’ icon. Here, you’ll see any articles you’ve saved to your Reading List using Microsoft Edge on your Windows 10 PC. The Hub also lets you access your browsing history and downloads.

The Edge Preview app has a useful Reading View feature that lets you customise an article’s theme, font and font size. Open any article, then tap the Reading View (notebook-shaped) icon in your URL bar at the top. On the page that opens, tap the A icon to change your page’s theme, font (there are three options), and text size (using a slider ). You can also click the ‘Add to Reading List’ icon.

Edge for smartphone: tips and tricks

Send web pages to your PC

First, ensure your PC is running the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. Next, open Settings on your PC, click Phone, ‘Add a Phone’, enter your phone number, then click Send. You’ll now receive a text message with a link for installing the Cortana app on your phone. Once you’ve done that, log into your Microsoft account. Now open any article in the Edge Preview app, then tap the ‘Continue on PC’ icon. Next, select your PC’s name to instantly open the web page in Edge on that PC. Alternatively, tap ‘Continue later’ to see the web page as a notification in your PC’s Action Centre.

Tabbed browsing

To open multiple tabs, tap the stacked-squares icon at the bottom right of the app. You’ll see two options at the top – Tabs (for normal browsing) and InPrivate mode, which won’t store a record of your browsing activity. Select the mode you want, then tap the ‘+’ icon to open a new web page. Tap the stacked-squares icon again to see all your open web pages as tiles. Tap the X below a tile to close it. To close all your tiles in one go, tap the three dots, ‘Close tabs’, then tap OK.

Voice search

To search online using your voice, tap the URL bar, then tap the backspace button to clear any URL. Next, tap the microphone icon in the URL bar, tap Allow, then speak whatever you want to search for. This will now open as a search result within Bing. If you want to change your default search engine to Google, tap the three dots at the bottom right, tap Settings, ‘Default search engine’, then select Google. If you find Edge’s font size too small to read, tap Accessibility within Settings, then move the slider until you can see the sample text clearly.

Make it the default

To set Edge Preview as your default browser, return to Settings, tap ‘Set default browser’, ‘Default app settings’, Browser, select Edge, then tap Change. To send feedback to Microsoft, tap the three dots on any web page, select ‘Send feedback’, then type and send your comments. Microsoft has announced that it’s planning to release the full version of the app later this year and a future app update will add support for Android tablets and iPads.