Microsoft is working to release a new set of features. These features are available in Edge Canary before the company rolls them out to the stable release. This includes Microsoft Rewards, which allows users to donate their Microsoft Rewards to charities. Edge for Gamers helps to reduce browser resource usage and prevent games from crashing, improving performance. Thumbnails for Favorites allows users to choose between small, medium, or large thumbnails for their favorite websites.
Microsoft Rewards on Edge Canary
Microsoft has pushed a new update to Edge in the Canary channel. The update brings a new feature that allows users to donate their Microsoft Reward points to charitable organizations, giving users an option to support the causes they care about. Reward points will be converted to an equivalent amount of money and donated to the charity of the user’s choice, with the exact amount they want to donate.
— Leopeva64 (@Leopeva64) May 12, 2023
If you need to learn about Microsoft Reward points, a Microsoft loyalty program rewards users for using Microsoft products and services. Users can redeem their points for rewards such as gift cards, Xbox games, and charitable donations. This encourages users to use Microsoft products and services. These rewards can be earned by searching with Bing, shopping online, and using Microsoft Edge. To use this feature, follow these instructions:
- Open Microsoft Edge Canary on your desktop and head over to Privacy.
- Look for the Search and Services tab.
- Check for Rewards and then toggle to enable Donate Points to Charity.
Users can donate their points to any charity listed in the Microsoft Rewards Catalog if enabled. The company is trying to seamlessly integrate the donation process into users’ online experience, which is a positive development. If we recall, Microsoft introduced the Give with Bing initiative in 2020. That initiative allowed users to donate their Microsoft Reward points to over a million non-profit organizations and raised over $12 million within the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.
The company has tested this feature in the past. It is currently in development and can only be tested with Edge Canary. This feature is expected to be released shortly.
Edge for Gamers Option
To improve the gaming experience, Microsoft is adding a new option called “Edge for Gamers.” If this feature is enabled, it will open Discord and Twitch in the sidebar. It will reduce browser resource usage when a game is launched and prevent games from crashing, improving performance by reducing CPU, RAM, and network usage. Users need to enable this feature from the Edge Settings. Follow these instructions:
- Open Edge Settings and head over to the Appearance page.
- Look for Edge for Gamers and then toggle to enable it.
Dark mode and the toggle to 'Improve the PC gaming experience' are also turned on automatically. That's what I've noticed so far, *maybe Microsoft will add more features related to that toggle in the future. pic.twitter.com/WOXctFnlvD
— Leopeva64 (@Leopeva64) May 13, 2023
Edge for Gamers is designed to enhance the gaming experience. It includes a gaming homepage to provide gamers with a personalized experience, including news, game guides, live streams, and other relevant content. The sidebar app feature allows gamers to access popular gaming apps such as Discord and Twitch directly from their browsers, making communication easier and allowing them to watch live streams while gaming. It also includes an efficient mode for PC gaming, which features a dark mode and gaming theme.
It is currently in Canary, and the new update improves games’ performance when running in the browser. This feature is similar to Opera GX.
Thumbnail for Favorites on Edge
Microsoft is also working on adding a thumbnail option to the favorites hub in Edge. It will allow users to choose between small, medium, or large thumbnails for their favorite websites, making them more visually appealing. This gives users more control over the look and feel of their Edge browser, but currently, only small and medium options are available.
I think the favorites hub will also be longer in the future, just like the History hub…https://t.co/H8awAlHZYm
— Leopeva64 (@Leopeva64) May 14, 2023
The small thumbnail view in Edge has two options: TreeView, which shows a dropdown list of your favorite websites, and Breadcrumb, which organizes your bookmarks into folders. Specific details about the large thumbnail views are not disclosed, but it is anticipated to provide greater visual prominence to favorite websites. This feature is currently available in Edge Canary and is expected to be released to the general public in the future.
