Microsoft Edge Now Supports Extensions on Mobile: How to Get Started

Extension support adds useful extra features to the browsers that are unavailable by default. Mainstream browsers like Google Chrome, which dominates the market, do not support extensions on mobile. Firefox supports mobile extensions, but this browser is not for everyone except power users. After a year-long wait, Microsoft Edge, considered a reliable alternative to the Google Chrome browser, has announced support for mobile extensions.

With the Chromium-based browser, Microsoft Edge supports all popular Chrome extensions on mobile. In this guide, you will learn how to get extension support on the Microsoft browser and our favorite list of extensions to get started.

How to Get Support for Extensions on Microsoft Edge

First, download the Microsoft Edge browser on your Android. Microsoft Edge extension support is currently only available on Android. If you already use the browser, you can update it to the latest version (134.0.3124.57).

After that, Open the Microsoft Edge browser, click the menu in the bottom right corner, and select Extensions.

Here, you can see a list of all extensions. You can search and add unlimited extensions to enhance the functionality of your browser on your device. Select the extension and click the Get to add extension to the browser.

To edit extension permissions and enable it to run in the incognito browser, select the extension you want under the installed section, click on the three-dot menu, and change the settings. You can also disable or remove the extension from this menu.

At launch, Microsoft only supports limited extensions, which include VPN, ad blockers, and other extensions to enhance your browsing experience.

To get started, here are our five favorite extensions you can install on your Microsoft Edge browser.

Use Built-in Ad Blocker

Since ad blockers are very popular extensions we recommend on all our extension lists, Microsoft has a built-in ad blocker that blocks most ads.

However, at launch, there is no ad block support for extensions. If you want to block ads on Android completely, you can use private DNS, which blocks any advertisement within the apps and browsers using private DNS.

We have a detailed guide on how to set up and use private DNS for Android to block ads completely. You can view this guide. However, iPhone users can install the Microsoft browser directly. It comes with a built-in ad blocker, which blocks most advertisements. To enable ads block, Go to Settings> Tap on Privacy, security, and Services, and under the security tab, enable Block ads. 

VPN – Get Built-In VPN Support on Your Browser

VPN can be useful, especially if you want to keep all your browsing activity private and secure without being tracked. Not just that, a VPN can also help you access geo-restricted websites blocked in your region so you can securely access those websites without any issues.

However, using a VPN, especially a standalone VPN app, often has limitations, such as requiring a subscription, installing a separate app, and manually setting it up, which can be inconvenient for some reason.

To address this, many browsers have started offering built-in VPNs for browsers, some even for free. You can see our full list of browsers offering built-in VPNs without requiring sign-up.

Thanks to Microsoft Edge extension support, you can now install a free VPN extension as an add-on and add built-in VPN support to the Microsoft browser. This eliminates the need to install extra VPN software and makes it easy to access and set up whenever you require a VPN within the browser.

Currently, the Microsoft browser only supports limited VPN extensions, including popular ones like Adguard VPN, which offers up to 3GB of data transfer quota every month with 70+ locations, including the ability to select your desired location.

However, it requires sign-up to use. If you don’t want to sign up for a VPN, there is also Browsec VPN, which offers a free VPN for Microsoft without any limitations and requires any setup.

If you already use Nord VPN, you can directly sign in by installing the Nord VPN extension in your Microsoft browser. To install a VPN, click on the menu (hamburger icon) in the bottom right corner and click Extensions. Find a VPN extension and Click Get, and the VPN will be added to your browser.

To use it, click the menu again, go to extensions, and select the VPN. You can sign up with your account if it requires sign-in, which will be automatically enabled. You can refresh your page to activate the VPN.

AIX Downloader – Download Photos, Videos and All Other Files

AIX Downloader is one of our favorite extensions, making it easy to download videos, music, images, and other media directly from the website. You can download videos, images, audio, and other files using the extension without leaving the web page.

It also has a built-in media player, allowing you to preview the content directly without downloading the file. It also works on multiple sites, including social media sites like YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok, which allows you to directly download the videos without requiring a separate downloader.

You can further customize your download settings to include and filter specific downloads. It supports downloading files in multiple formats. It supports all video formats, including MP4, MOV, WMV, and MKV. It also supports multiple audio formats such as MP3, WAV, WMA, OGG, FLAC, and images.

Dark Reader and Web Highlighter

Suppose you often read blogs or articles on your Microsoft web browser. In that case, the dark reader extension enables dark mode, and you can customize the sensitivity and contrast of the dark mode.

The web highlighter allows you to natively highlight any specific parts of the website without using any third party. Both allow you to customize and enhance your web reading experience further.

Web Clippers

A web clipper allows you to easily save and organize webpage information for later reference, especially if you’re doing research or who often reads blogs and websites. It can be a handy tool for storing pages, referring to them later, and organizing all information in a single place.

Of course, you can bookmark these sites and access them later, but bookmarks only allow you to save links; a web clipper can allow you to save them, save the complete webpages, and also allows you to organize and treat them later, including any content you find while browsing in your Microsoft browser.

It syncs across your browsers. For instance, if you’re using Google Chrome on your PC, this will sync to your Google Chrome browser. Currently, Microsoft Edge doesn’t support web clients; however, you can use Save to Pocket as an alternative to help you save and organize all your bookmarks in a single place. To save a webpage, go to a webpage, click on the menu icon, tap on share, and then select Save to Pocket.

Download app: Android | iOS

If you want to use Microsoft web browser as a default browser and enhance your experience, here are the few settings you need to change to get a better experience on your browser.

Change These Settings to Enhance Your Experience on Your Microsoft Edge Browser

Unlike Google Chrome, Microsoft’s home page is cluttered with wallpapers, shortcuts, and unwanted elements. Fortunately, you can customize and turn off all the settings to make it simpler and minimal and allow you to focus only on the search.

To do this, click on the Filter icon in the top right corner of the screen, scroll down, and turn off the options that say Show Shortcut, Show Wallpaper, and Show Feeds. This will eliminate 95% of the cluttered elements on your browser.

Microsoft, by default, uses the Bing search engine; however, compared to Google search, Bing performs better in many instances, but if you still prefer Google search, you can change the default search engine to Google or even Go if you want more privacy.

To do this, click on the hamburger menu, go to settings, click on General, Select the search engine here, and select Google Search or, for more privacy, DuckDuckGo. You can also leave Bing as a default engine.

To further simplify your experience in the Microsoft browser, you can turn off the shopping tab and Microsoft and edit Menu. Here, you can disable unwanted options that might clutter your experience.

In the edit menu option, you can remove drop, download space, send to devices, a few desktop modes, and add other pages like the ability to include font size and summarise to help you summarise a piece and a reader that removes all the unwanted elements from the webpage base on your preference. If you want a cleaner experience, I recommend disabling the copilot to make it easier and less minimal.

Those are the few settings and extensions you can use to get the best experience on Microsoft Edge. There are rumors that Google Chrome is working on mobile extension support. Microsoft Edge only supports limited extensions; more support is coming soon. You can also check out our detailed guide on the best mobile browser extensions and how to use extensions on mobile using the Kiwi browser. I hope you find this guide helpful.