Microsoft Edge preview for iPhone updated with battery life improvements, more

If you're a member of the limited group of testers for Microsoft's Edge preview on iOS, Microsoft is rolling out a new update with some improvements to check out. The major new highlight in this release is a reduced impact on your battery life, but there are a couple of other goodies as well (via OnMSFT.

Coming in at version 2.6, the Edge for iOS update also adds in improvements for left and right swiping, along with support for action and activities extensions. Otherwise, the rest of the update looks to be squarely focused on bug fixes. Here's a look at what's new:

  • Battery usage optimization: Some of you told us that your phone heats up or otherwise consumers more battery when you use Edge. We looked under the hood and found a few optimizations. Let us know if you continue to experience high battery consumption.
  • Improved left/right swiping to go back and forth between pages.
  • Added support for actions and activities extensions, such as sharing sites, saving sites to notes, adding sites to Pocket, etc.
  • Fixes a bunch of other bugs!

Microsoft Edge for iOS launched into preview in early October, just ahead of the preview launch for its Android counterpart. Due to the nature of Apple's beta testing restrictions, space for testing Edge on iPhone is limited and filled up shortly after launch.

Edge's expansion to both Android and iOS is part of an initiative to give Edge users an easier way to share links and documents between desktop and mobile. That's largely seen with the prominent share icon at the bottom of the mobile browser, allowing you to "Continue on PC" by passing what you're looking at to Edge on desktop.

If you want to try your hand at testing the Microsoft Edge mobile preview, you can sign up for a shot at getting into the iOS beta at Microsoft. If you find yourself on Android, you can download and test the Edge preview on Google Play as well.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl