Microsoft Edge for Android now has its own extensions store - here's how it works
ZDNET
Move over, Chrome. Microsoft Edge has officially launched a feature for Android users still lacking Google's browser. Rolled out last week, Edge for Android has finally opened an official store for extensions.
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Though the store is still labeled as a beta and offers fewer than two dozen extensions, the move is a sign of progress. Extensions for the Android version of Edge have been available for more than a year, but the process for installing them had been clunky. You not only needed the Canary preview edition of Edge, but you also had to enable a special flag to access them.
How to add extensions to Edge on Android
With the latest version of Edge, the process is quick and simple. To try it on your Android device, install Edge from Google Play or update the app if you already have it. After opening Edge, tap the three-line hamburger icon in the lower right and select Extensions in the bottom panel. At this point, the store is home to only 22 extensions, but Microsoft promises that more are coming soon.
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For now, you'll find such extensions as Dark Reader to enable dark mode for all websites, Bitwarden Password Manager, VPN clients NordVPN and AdGuard VPN, Immersive Translate to translate eBooks and other items, a couple of apps to manage and delete cookies, and Collabwriting to create and share notes for any web page.
To install a specific extension, just tap Get and then Add. To manage an installed extension, return to the Extensions page and tap the three-dot icon next to it. From the menu, you can then disable the extension, run it in Private mode, view its details and permissions, or remove it.
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Extensions typically aren't as in demand on mobile devices as they are on desktops. However, Microsoft's move could still prompt some Android users to switch from Chrome to Edge as their main browser. That's because Google still doesn't offer extensions for Android.
Google has been working on a project known as Desktop Android that would support Chrome extensions on other devices. However, this project is geared more toward Chromebooks, Android Authority said last October, pointing to an engineer who said that mobile platforms would be out of scope.