14 DAY TRIAL // If you’re a Windows Phone user, you surely know that Microsoft doesn’t allow you to change the default browser or the default search engine, which is clearly a major drawback if you simply don’t want to use Internet Explorer or Bing, respectively.
But in Windows 10 Mobile, that’s going to change, at least partially.
Twitter user @rlinev has posted screenshots with Microsoft Edge running on an unreleased version of Windows 10 Mobile that apparently comes with options to change the default search engine.
Basically, this means that users of Windows 10 Mobile will be able to switch from Bing to Google if they wish, but some other additional search engines are also likely to be offered.
This is pretty much the same behavior that Edge has on the desktop because the browser also lets users change the default search engine from Bing to another one in the settings menu. So it appears that the Edge team is bringing most of the features available on the desktop on mobile devices too and that’s certainly a good thing when thinking that the company is willing to unify platforms and offer a similar experience across all devices.
Extensions also coming on Windows 10 Mobile
Part of this plan is to bring support for extensions on mobile devices too, but timing info on this one is not yet available.
Earlier this year, the Edge development team confirmed that offering support for extensions on mobile devices was indeed planned, but the company first wanted to get this feature right on desktops and only then start focusing more on Windows 10 Mobile.
The PC version of Microsoft Edge browser is projected to receive the eagerly-anticipated extension support sometime next month, so maybe in early 2016 the same feature can land on mobile devices too. Obviously, it could take a while until this happens, but it’s reassuring to know that at least Microsoft’s planning to do this.