Microsoft’s New Desktop Browser Gets More Features in the Dev Channel

Microsoft has released a new update for the Dev channel of its Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser.

With this release, Microsoft Edge Dev reaches version 80.0.355.1, coming with two notable features on all supported desktop platforms (Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, and macOS).

First and foremost, Microsoft has added a new option to increase text spacing in Reading View. As one of the features that migrated from the original Edge to the Chromium-powered sibling, Reading View is evolving at a rather fast pace, and every release brings further improvements to refine the experience with it.

As a side note, Google Chrome is also likely to benefit from Microsoft’s increased focus on the Reading View in Microsoft Edge, so expect a similar feature to go live in Google’s browser too.

Crash fixes

The second new feature worth highlighting in this release concerns work and school accounts. Microsoft explains in the release notes (which you can read in full in the box after the jump):

“Added a prompt to verify work or school accounts that are automatically added to Edge but aren’t enabled for sync so that users are aware sync isn’t enabled.”

As every other release in the Dev channel, there are plenty of fixes in this update, and one of the most important targets a crash on startup experience on ARM64 devices. Microsoft says it has also corrected crashes occurring when a closing a window and when the favorite sync is enabled.

Worth reminding is that favorites syncing is still disabled due to a bug discovered by the company in the previous releases and which is yet to get a fix. Most likely, however, a patch is already on its way, so expect it in the next few updates.