Microsoft's browsers, for the most part, have been limited to the company's own operating systems. There are exceptions to this, such as the short-lived Internet Explorer for Mac, but that has been the general rule. Earlier today, the company announced something unexpected - Edge for Android and iOS.

If you're completely unfamiliar with Windows, Microsoft Edge is the successor to Internet Explorer built into Windows 10. Compared to IE, Edge has (slightly) better standards support, a new Metro-powered UI, and faster loading times. The browser uses the EdgeHTML engine, a fork of IE's Trident engine with much of the legacy code removed.

Before I go any further, it's worth mentioning that Edge for Android/iOS does not use the EdgeHTML rendering engine. Microsoft confirmed that the Android version will use Chrome's Blink engine (but it won't just be a WebView wrapper). On iOS, it will use Safari's WebKit engine, as required by all third-party browsers on iOS.

Microsoft says that Edge for iOS and Android will sync your Favorites, Reading List, and new Tab Page across all your devices. One of the new features is the send button, which will instantly open the page you're looking at on your Windows 10 PC. Interestingly, the URL bar is placed at the top of the screen, instead of the bottom like on Edge for Windows 10 Mobile.

The browser is currently in Preview for both iOS and Android, and Microsoft is limiting it to Windows Insider (the company's Windows 10 beta testing program) members for now. If you're running an Insider build on your PC, you can sign up for the Edge preview here. The Android version hasn't been pushed to testers yet, so we don't have an APKMirror link to share. Microsoft expects Edge for iOS/Android will leave beta near the end of the year.

Source: Microsoft (1,2)