Microsoft has abandoned the Edge browser redesign announced in early 2023. The company planned to move away from visual similarities with Google Chrome and make the interface smoother and more rounded. The reasons for abandoning this direction are not specified, Windows Central writes.
During the announcement of the new design, Microsoft also introduced Bing Chat, a service now known as Microsoft Copilot. Bing and Edge were the "face" of artificial intelligence for Windows, and the company wanted to make Edge "sleeker and lighter" to illustrate the changes.
It's been more than a year since the redesign was announced, but the official launch hasn't happened. For some time, the new interface could be enabled in the settings as an option, but the latest versions of Microsoft Edge indicate that this feature will soon disappear. The latest version of Edge Canary no longer has the option to switch to the new design.
A Microsoft representative said that some elements of the new design will remain, including the frame around web pages and the relocated user button, and that a global redesign is no longer planned.
It's unclear what caused this decision, as the new interface was clean and perfectly matched the overall aesthetic of Windows 11. Now the Edge browser will look almost exactly the same as before, i.e. very similar to Google Chrome.