If you’re an Insider who is eagerly waiting for extension support to arrive on Microsoft Edge, I have some good news for you. According to contacts familiar with the matter, Microsoft is finally ready to begin flighting extension support for Edge in an upcoming Insider release preview build, just in time for BUILD at the end of the month.
I’m told extension support for Microsoft Edge is now available in the latest rs1_release builds being flighted internally, meaning we’re mere days/weeks away from extensions landing for Insiders. This is great news for not only Insiders but for developers too, as it means work can finally start on porting over Chrome extensions to Edge.
Calculating a timeframe in which a build with extension support will drop is tricky, as we never really know what build Microsoft is planning to release until Gabe is ready to push the button. Sources say build 14284 is the first rs1_release build to include extensions in Edge, so hopefully Microsoft pushes something newer than that out as soon as possible. What we can say is the wait really isn’t long now.
Extensions for Microsoft Edge are scheduled to launch officially with the first wave of updates coming with Redstone in June, giving developers around three months to port and test their own extensions before extensions are rolled out to the public. This should be enough time to build up a healthy market of extensions for consumers, as it’s one of the most requested features currently submitted via the feedback app.
We should learn a lot more about extensions during the upcoming BUILD developer conference in San Francisco, where it is likely the company will detail how everything works and how developers can get their apps ported over from Chrome. Until then however, what are you hoping to see come to Edge via extension support? Let us know below.
