On Windows and MacOS, Google Chrome’s bread and butter is extensions. They round out the user experience, and each user finds a different arsenal of add-ons useful. That feature never made it to Android, but it looks like Microsoft Edge has added extensions in its latest mobile build.
Extensions are great for adding a tiny bit of functionality to a browsing experience without dedicating an entire app to run in the background. For instance, some users like to use VPNs securely tied in from the browser itself rather than running the full-scale app. On mobile, that’s less of a concern, and most would likely skew to aesthetic changes.
While Google Chrome on Android doesn’t have a web store, for some reason, Microsoft Edge’s latest build does (via Windows Latest). In version 134.0.3124.57, the app offers an “extensions” button in the bottom menu. Tapping that brings you to an extension store filled with currently free add-ons, though future additions may cost money.
It looks like there are only a handful of extensions available, including a VPN, media downloader, and dark mode extension. All of these extensions come with the caveat that they’re in beta, though they are available via the public release outside of Microsoft’s Canary build. It’s also important to note that these are available without enabling flags, which is a big shift.
To install an extension in Microsoft Edge for Android, it takes a couple of taps. First, head to the Extensions button in the bottom menu. A page of 22 extensions should appear, and tapping Get and Add successively will install the extension. It can be used through that same extension button in the bottom menu.
This comes as Google Chrome has still not added it’s own Web Store for mobile. Firefox, Edge, and Kiwi have since added some form of extension store, while the latter has access to web-based Chrome extensions. The ability is there, but Chrome has not implemented it yet, nor is it known if it ever will.
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