Microsoft Edge: AI Browser is the browser's new name on Android and iOS
Microsoft has renamed its Microsoft Edge web browser for Android and iOS to Microsoft Edge: AI Browser. A visit to the Google Play Store or Apple App Store page of the browser confirms the change.
Microsoft has not yet announced the change or explained why it has changed the browser's name. A possible explanation is the company's push to integrating AI into many of its products.
The description on the store pages focuses on AI functionality: "Microsoft Edge, your AI-powered browser, with Copilot built in to enhance your browsing experience. Empowered by GPT-4 , Copilot enables you to ask questions, refine searches, receive comprehensive summaries and create images with DALL-E 3. Microsoft Edge is a smarter way to browse, find, create and shop on the go."
The description focuses on the Copilot AI that is part of Microsoft Edge. Edge users on mobile devices may use it for a number of options. These include getting article summaries, identification of items on images, the creation of images using words and the usual chatting with AI.
The name change could confuse some users, as the desktop version is still referred to as Microsoft Edge only. It may also be confusing to see the initial update for Microsoft Edge: AI Browser when updating manually or checking for updates.
Microsoft Edge: AI Browser seems to be used only for identification on the app stores. The browser still uses Microsoft Edge as its name when you launch it.
Microsoft Edge is not the most popular browser on mobile devices. Part of it comes from the fact that Microsoft does not operate its own mobile platform. Google and Apple control the mobile platforms and it does not come as a surprise that Chrome and Safari reign supreme on these platforms.
Microsoft Edge has over 50 million downloads on Android and a rating of 4.6. Apple's App Store reveals no download stats but lists Edge with a rating of 4.7.
It will be interesting to see if the name change will push Microsoft Edge installations on either platform. Initial reactions appear to be mixed. Besides the already mentioned confusion about the different name, there is also the question of validity. Is Microsoft Edge an AI browser? While it has AI functionality, this makes up just a small part of the browser.
With the same logic, other browser makers could change the names of their browsers to AI browser as well. Heck, even Windows could be renamed to Windows: the AI operating system.
Closing Words
The renaming to Microsoft Edge: AI Browser is a marketing stunt. It may attract the attention of users looking for AI on the app stores.
Whether Microsoft's strategy pays off remains to be seen.
Now You: What is your take on the renaming? (via Neowin)
Ai! Ai! (without the h)
Very funny anyway. The sad part is that if they made this choice there is an underlying reasoning toward the end users. The hope is that they are simply marketing addicts.
MSFT AI
WINDOWS AI
OFFICE AI
GOOG AI
AMZN AI
NVIDIA AI
INTEL AI
AMD AI
…
FXXK U AI
So, what’s next…?
Windows Update becomes “AI Update”? If it does… we are all doomed….. DOOOOOOOOOOOMED!
It appears as though it was created by one of those phony browser developers. It’s unfortunate how cheap and shady Microsoft has become under Satya Nadella’s leadership.
Are you implying Microsoft under Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer were not shady? Gates was going Dennis Reynolds with his “Embrace, extend, and extinguish” mentality. Back in 2000 Ballmer called open source “communism” and “a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches”. This when Microsoft was full of exploits and security holes. He still thinks this opinion is that of a sane person for the time. Lol. They are all shady.
What’s in a name, right?
I don’t understand, though, a browser war for Android? Rich in personal data, no doubt.
People honestly use their mobiles for some serious surfing, bookmarking, reading, etc.? I occasionally look for a business phone number or a simple tip for a restaurant–that’s it.
It would be hard for me [impossible] to sit and read, in entirety, anything on my phone.
Music elsewhere.
Movie/shows–elsewhere.
I guess if our Internet and/or electric went out; I rather doubt I’d cuddle up to my phone for a few hours.
Microsoft has a thing about name changes. I don’t know that AI is a primary function of a web browser. So far Microsoft’s AI push has not resulted in any more market share for Edge. I agree with others, this name change will just confuse more than help.
Just when I think Chromium Edge can’t get any tackier, somehow Microsoft manage to do it.
Microsoft Edge: AI Browser – even more retarded than just Edge. I have some naming suggestions for microsoft:
Microsoft Edge: Pile of Shit Browser
Microsoft Edge: AI Crapware
Microsoft Edge: Brought to you by the imbeciles at Microshit
Microsoft Edge: Can’t compete with Other Browser so lets add AI to flaunt our stupidity
Microsoft Edge: The next Artificial Imbecility to delete from your device
+1
LOL xD
Happy New Year 2024 for you! :]
Superb read.
I just want to say how happy I am that Softonic has backed off from the flood of uninteresting articles clearly designed for SEO, so ghacks is back to covering technology news for technology enthusiasts!!
I didn’t know where else to say this – if I could find you on the Fediverse I would post it there.
+1. Perhaps I can now take down the uBlock filter I had to use to block all those AI generated ads.
Cringe… typical Microsoft, they have really fallen from grace.
M$ never had any grace in the first place.
And if you look at how they behaved in the 80s and 90s, their common business behavior is (in comparison) absolutely splendid.
Maybe I am looking at things with rose tinted glasses, but 2007-2012 was a pretty good time, microsoft made good hardware and peripherals, they had the beautiful aero glass, and hardware design was reflecting this, hardware manufacturers were also riding the trend, you had acrylic accents and other nice things. Office 2007 was a bit of a paradigm shift and not only did things work well, but they also looked beautiful (features and functionality got more refined with Office 2010). The fucking troubleshooters inside windows actually did something. Internet explorer was once a decent useable browser, way better than this chromium stuff we’re stuck with. Microsoft developers posted their musings and ideas on the Microsoft websites and talked to people about stuff. Different windows themes also changed system sounds, you had little things like that which showed some human element. I also didn’t find many stupid errors/bugs/spelling mistakes, overall the polish was much higher. Offline help docs baked into the OS that were actually useful and not just an edge redirect.
I’d say Microsoft were definitely held to higher respects in the past, than they are now.
“And if you look at how they behaved in the 80s and 90s” wasn’t around then, lol, maybe that’s the problem.