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Microsoft Edge on Android: Windows 10 browser spinoff clocks up million users

Microsoft's new Edge app quickly reaches a million downloads, but the company needs more Edge PC users.
Written by Liam Tung, Contributing Writer

Just a week after coming out of preview, the Microsoft Edge app for Android has been downloaded at least a million times.

According to the Google Play Store, the Blink-based Microsoft Edge app has been downloaded between one million and five million times. The app has been available to testers for a while, but only reached preview in October before becoming generally available at the end of November.

The Microsoft Edge apps for iOS and Android aim to make Edge more appealing to use on Windows 10 by making it more convenient to sync the browsing experience across devices.

The app offers Microsoft's 'Continue on PC', which allows users to pass a site, app, photos, and files from a phone to a Windows 10 PC.

Microsoft has also added a roaming passwords feature that allows users to save a password on the phone, which carries across to the PC, as well as a dark theme.

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Microsoft hope easy syncing of browsing across devices will make Edge more appealing to use on Windows 10.

Image: Microsoft

It's likely to take a while for Edge app downloads to pass the five million milestone on Android, given that the app is only useful for the subset of Windows 10 users who actually use Edge on a PC.

While Windows 10 is now running over 500 million PCs, Edge currently only has a 3.6 percent share of desktops worldwide, according to NetMarketShare.

So anything Microsoft can do to boost appeal of Edge on the PC will be helpful in convincing more users to make the switch, either from Chrome or Internet Explorer 11.

It's also working to expand the number of Edge extensions, which over a year after Microsoft enabled them now numbers 80.

Previous and related coverage

Microsoft's Edge browsing apps generally available for iOS, Android

Microsoft is continuing to bang the Windows 10 'Continue on PC' drum with its Edge browser apps for iOS and Android.

Microsoft is bringing new Edge apps to iOS, Android

Microsoft is rolling out new Edge apps for iOS and Android (plus an updated Launcher app for Android) as part of its strategy to try to keep Windows 10 PCs central to users' computing mix.

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