Microsoft Edge Chromium Version for Xbox Now in Testing: Report

You should be able to access Google Stadia from your Xbox console once the new Chromium-based browser is released to the general public.

By Satvik Khare | Updated: 8 March 2021 15:02 IST

Microsoft Edge Chromium Version for Xbox Now in Testing: Report

Photo Credit: Twitter/ Tom Warren

Microsoft Alpha Skip-Ahead’s latest build shows the latest Chromium-based Edge browser

Highlights

Xbox Alpha skip-ahead give insight to new browser
Chromium browser should support Google Stadia, Amazon Luna
Build still buggy but will come with mouse and keyboard support

Microsoft Edge's Chromium overhaul has expanded to the Xbox console, with testers on the Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X receiving a Chromium-based Edge build. As of now, Microsoft is testing the browser with the Alpha Skip-Ahead group, and the implementation is still a little buggy. While there is no keyboad and mouse support, it reportedly works well with the Xbox controller. The new Chromium-based Edge build will finally offer a modern browser to Xbox console owners, and allow them to use such Web-services as Discord and Skype, apart from offering access to other game streaming services such as Google Stadia (and potentially Amazon Luna).

According to a report by The Verge, the test build of the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser is now available for Xbox testers in the Alpha Skip-Ahead group. The report adds that the new browser currently works best with the Xbox controller, while complete mouse and keyboard support is expected to come sometime in the future.

The test Chromium-based Edge browser for Xbox is said to use the same sync engine as the desktop build, offering the same support for extensions, vertical tabs, Collections and other Edge features. The new test version of the console browser is expected to be launched soon.

Xbox's Alpha Skip-Ahead group, which is one of Microsoft's beta testing groups, receives preview builds of future system updates that may or may not reach the end user, way before the general audience gets their hands on it. It is one step higher than the Alpha group, which gets to experience future software right before being released for the General Audience.

Early last year, Microsoft launched its Chromium-based Edge browser for Windows and macOS, after it announced in late 2018 that Edge will be switching to Chromium. The partnership with Google sees the new Edge get features similar to Google's Chrome, including access to Chrome extensions. A different feature from Chrome is the addition of Collections, which allows collation of images and content from the Web and helps with prevention of tracking data.

Microsoft is also ending support for the legacy version of the Edge browser for Windows PCs on March 9.

PS5 vs Xbox Series X: Which is the best "next-gen" console in India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

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Microsoft Xbox One X

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Worthy upgrade over the Xbox One S
Improves a lot of games
Excellent build quality

Bad
Not available officially yet
Microsoft’s download system needs work

HDD 1TB

Processor AMD Jaguar 2.3GHz 8-core

Graphics AMD Radeon GCN 4.0

RAM 12GB

AV HDMI-out, Optical Out

USB 3 USB 3.0 ports

Weight 3.81kg

Ethernet Yes

More Microsoft Gaming Consoles

Microsoft Xbox Series S

KEY SPECS
NEWS

HDD 512GB PCie Gen 4 NVME SSD

Processor Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU @ 3.8GHz

Graphics Custom AMD RDNA 2 GPU 20 CUs @ 1.565GHz

RAM 10GB GDDR6 RAM

More Microsoft Gaming Consoles

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