Microsoft has released a major update to Microsoft Edge with two new features. The Chromium-based browser has recently received a lot of new features, such as Split-Screen Window, Typo-protection feature, Bing AI-Chat Bot, and Visual Changes, alongside optimizations and improvements. There are many things going on with Microsoft Edge to make the experience better and towards making it a better alternative or even the first choice browser. There are many features like Sidebar, Price Comparison feature, Coupon and Promo codes, and a price tracking tool.
With the latest release, Microsoft Edge has rolled out the new Workspace feature that allows for collaboration and brings back one of the most-requested features: autoplay video and media block. Some features are still in Edge Insider, but some have started rolling out to a wider audience. So, for some features like Workspace, it might not require enabling this functionality from the Edge Flag as it starts rolling out to the Stable version. However, some features like Block Autoplay are still in development, so you need to enable them from the Microsoft Edge Flags, which is still for Edge Insider. (https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com/en-us/whats-new)
Block Autoplay Videos
The latest update of Microsoft Edge Beta comes with a block autoplay video feature. It gives users the functionality to choose whether they want to allow or limit autoplay videos according to their preference. This can potentially avoid unwanted distractions and noise from websites by automatically blocking autoplay videos with sound. We wanted this feature to be native on our browser, but mostly users use extensions to disable autoplay. As this feature is now coming natively to Microsoft Edge, users can allow or block according to their preference.
How to disable autoplay (also loading of vids because it consumes data) in edge both desktop and mobile? Not having an autoplay disable option, I have lost a lot of data (when opening several links in background or on other tabs). I hate chrome for removing this old option but edge can bring it.
by u/chirruphowlinkeeaahh in MicrosoftEdge
“We have heard your requests for strict blocking of media autoplay, and we are excited to share that it is now available! Edge Canary now has a new autoplay setting, Block, which allows you to stop all media on a site from automatically playing,” said Microsoft.
This feature isn’t yet available in the Edge Settings. You need to enable this from the Microsoft Edge Experiment feature, for which you need to open Edge://flags and check for “Show Block Option in Autoplay settings” or Direct acess with this edge://flags/#edge-autoplay-user-setting-block-option.
From there, enable this with the help of the drop-down menu. Next, it will ask you to restart. After restarting, check the Media Autoplay settings in the Edge Settings under Content or directly head over to edge://settings/content/mediaAutoplay. From there, you can toggle to enable the Block to prevent any media from playing automatically in Microsoft Edge.
Google Chrome doesn’t offer any such feature. However, if you want to do this, you can use third-party extensions to block autoplay videos or mute the sound on selected websites. This feature was previously available on Microsoft Edge but was replaced with the choice to allow or limit the type of content. As Microsoft is bringing back the block autoplay video with sound, this feature will receive major updates over the coming weeks with the Edge Canary update.
Prevent tabs from autoplay
by u/teri-ma-di in MicrosoftEdge
Workspaces (Public Preview)
Microsoft has released an update to the Edge browser for public preview across Microsoft Canary, Microsoft Dev, and Microsoft Edge. The update includes the workspace feature, which allows you to share a group of tabs. This feature is only available with the updated version Microsoft Edge V106 or higher and Policy File version 107.
To enable this feature, you need to go to the Microsoft Edge Experiments window at edge://flags-workspaces, use the drop-down menu to enable it, and then restart to make the change. After enabling the Microsoft Edge Workspace, you can access it from the top-left corner of the screen, next to the tab button. Once you create a workspace, you can organize your different tabs for each topic into a single labeled workspace-tab with a name and color for easy identification.
Users can credit, edit, and access the workspace from the icon that appears in the upper-left corner of the toolbar. When creating a workspace, you can name it and pick the code to make it easy to find. It will be synced across your devices and allow you to collaborate with other users using an Azure AD account. This makes it easier to share your browsing tasks and organize the tabs. Additionally, you can share the browser tabs using a link with anyone and invite people to join your workspace to collaborate.
If it sounds familiar, that’s because it’s quite similar to Microsoft Edge Collection functionality. You can organize and share a group of tabs for your ideas with notes, images, and webpages. It also has syncing and collaboration features, but Collection doesn’t require a Microsoft Azure AD account to use it. What makes it unique from Collection is that Microsoft Edge Workspace allows for collaboration and syncing functionality of saving tabs, which makes it quite efficient for projects, planning trips, or sharing ideas with your team.
To share the workspace with your team, click on the Invite button and then copy the link to your clipboard to share it with the person you want to collaborate with. Once your team joins the workspace you shared, they will appear in the workspace with a name and icon. You can also chat with your team using the chat icon placed in the upper-right corner of the address bar. Additionally, all the changes made with the workspace will have a history.
Users don’t have to worry about privacy because Microsoft Edge Workspace doesn’t share private information like passwords, downloads, collections, extensions, and other things. You can control what information you share and what websites you allow them to have access to. You can also revoke the permission anytime on the workspace.
