Microsoft continues to work on further improvements for the Edge browser on non-Windows platforms, and iOS looks to be the next in line to receive a series of improvements.
Today, the software giant released a new update for Microsoft Edge on iOS, with some of the features already available in the Android version, but also including exclusive tools.
First of all, this new beta version of Microsoft Edge for iOS introduces smart visual search. This feature is already part of Microsoft's Android browser and allows users to search the web using a photo. This works surprisingly well for landmarks, as Edge can retrieve details about a specific location simply by taking a photo with your phone.
This feature is also available in Microsoft Launcher and is powered by Bing, although in this case the search must be done from the search bar by simply clicking the camera icon. Intelligent visual search also supports contacts and searching for photos similar to the one you used to search.
Additionally, this update introduces support for “paste and go” and “paste and search” in the address bar. This means you can simply copy a word or phrase from another place and then paste it into the address bar to automatically load a website or perform a search.
This is a feature that has been around for a long time on desktop and is already available in other mobile browsers, and it's definitely a useful addition for Edge users. At this point, it's not yet available on Android.
Keep in mind that these features are still part of the beta build of Microsoft Edge for iOS , and the company should roll them out to everyone else in the near future, depending on how quickly the testing process progresses.
