Top 10 features people want in Microsoft Edge

A lot of people use Microsoft software on a regular basis. This does not only include Windows as an operating system but also other applications. Naturally, these users request a bunch of features that they want to improve the UX or overall workflows.

In order to cater to and collect all these requests, Microsoft has various and dedicated portals for almost all its mainstream software. In the past, we have taken a look at the most demanded capabilities for Windows 11, Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, Word, the Microsoft Store, and Widgets. Today, we will be listing the top 10 features that the public is requesting for the Redmond tech firm's latest browser, Microsoft Edge.

As usual, we will only be listing issues that are "open", sorted by upvote count on the Feedback portal. Also note that this list may cover multiple platforms and does not only include Windows. This time, we have added snippets of more details in each line item about what a particular request entails, Microsoft has not officially responded to any of the feedback pieces.

With that out of the way, let's begin!

1. Extension support on Edge mobile
   It would be good to be able to use extensions on the mobile browser, in my case, that is Android. In particular, the ad blocking built into edge does not work as well as the alternative I use in the desktop browser, in my case Windows - Matthew S
2. Navigate back within PDF after clicking link
   PDFs can have links that lead to other pages within the document. When I click on such a link, I would like to be able to navigate back to place in the document where I was when I clicked the link, either using the browser back button or a special button for this purpose - Marin Mlinarević
3. Sign PDF document with electronic signature / image
   Like Adobe Reader (free) has option to insert image as electronic signature to the PDF document. Microsoft Edge should also have a such option to put image as electronic signature - Hrvoje Kusulja
4. Improve touchscreen support
   Windows tablets such as Microsoft's own Surface need a browser which works well with touch. They had one with Edge Legacy, but since you've replaced it with the Chromium-based version, there isn't one - Marin Mlinarević
5. Make Microsoft Edge password manager to work with work or school accounts and not just personal Microsoft accounts
   (No details) - Ryan Scott
6. Bring back EPUB support
   I know that Microsoft has declared that there are no plans to bring EPUB support back but I think this deserves a review. Though there are alternatives for opening EPUB, there is no free alternative that provides similar user-friendly UX while reading EPUBs - Mohamed Darwish
7. OCR function for Edge
   It would be nice, to implement OCR-function for PDFs. A new button could be possible. After a click on that button, the text in the (scanned) PDF will be provided as OCR-text. The function is implemented in OneNote and hopefully it is possible to implement it in Edge - David Retzmann
8. Scrollable horizontal tab strip
   Vertical tabs are great, but I sometimes still want to use horizontal tabs, and when I have many of them open, I would like tabs to have a minimum width and to be able to scroll through them horizontally, as in Edge Legacy - Marin Mlinarević
9. Multiple profiles on mobile
   The mobile version of Edge, like the desktop version, should allow users to add multiple profiles besides just one personal and one work/school account. And each profile should be able to be pinned to a user's home screen or app drawer for easy access. Some of us use multiple profiles for different tasks. On desktop I personally use three profiles: one for personal, one for work, and one for my small business. This currently is unachievable on mobile unless the user installs separate versions of Edge (i.e., Stable, Beta, Dev, or Canary) and logs in with a separate profile on each, which is unnecessarily burdensome - Shawn I
10. Adobe InDesign-created interactive PDFs don't work in the browser
    We currently use Adobe InDesign to create Interactive PDFs for learning purposes and the interactivity within them doesn't work in the edge browser forcing individuals to download documents from SharePoint to local drives in order to review them - Toni Wilbourne

The requests are certainly interesting, especially considering that some are not really niche. For example, extension support and multiple profiles on mobile could benefit a significant number of users.

That said, it's a bit disappointing as usual to see that Microsoft hasn't responded to any open feedback item. The company appears to be a lot more active over on the Microsoft Edge Insider forums but that's not really a dedicated portal for feature requests. Feedback portal should be the central place for interactive feedback about Edge, but the company appears to be mostly ignoring it.

Do you use Microsoft Edge? What more functionalities would you like to be added to the browser?

Top 10 features people want in Microsoft Edge