Hi Reddit! We’re the team behind Microsoft Edge and we’re excited to answer your questions about the latest preview builds of Microsoft Edge. We’ve been working hard and we can’t wait to hear what you think. Ask us anything!

With Google potentially crippling / breaking adblock in the not too distant future, do you have any plans to implement it as a competitive advantage?

If not, what do you see as the value-add for Edge given it is using the same rendering engine as the competition and appears to have less functionality?

There are a couple components I want to touch on here - As mentioned elsewhere, we're still evaluating the adblock Manifest V3 changes, so we're not quite ready to commit to a statement one way or another on that issue.

More generally, we hear you that adblock is super important to having a good experience on the web. We're doing a couple of things now to start to address this:

• First, we're a member of the Coalition for Better Ads. As part of that we plan to start enforcing these standards by blocking ads on sites which do not comply with CBA guidelines by default.
• Second, we're committed to a strong extension ecosystem, including ad blocking. We're still evaluating some of the latest changes here in Chromium, but we're committed to the customer scenario as a principle. To be clear, we will not artificially restrict ad blocking for business reasons related to advertising.
• Finally, we occasionally hear requests for a built in ad blocking experiences in Edge. For most users, we find that extensions (combined with strong defaults around tracking prevention) are the best option here because you can choose from a variety of experiences and defaults, but we absolutely want to hear from you if you think this should be built in.

- Kyle

Sounds like this is a question specifically around the Manifest V3 changes, which we discussed a bit in a different answer below - https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/c094uf/hi_reddit_were_the_team_behind_microsoft_edge_and/er2yqsk/

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Reposting here -

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Great question! At Build, we started to talk about some specific commitments around user privacy and the quality of the browsing experience, as well as our goal to be customer-focused in terms of how we build the platform and when we intervene on the user’s behalf. One specific example is the tracking protection features we announced at Build; we also hear from many customers that access to robust content blocking solutions is super important to their browsing experiences.

In the specific case of the extension Manifest V3 changes being discussed in the Chromium community, we are in ongoing discussions with a number of popular extension developers and with the Chromium community to understand both the technical merits and the impact to developers and customers of the proposed changes. We’ll share more details about how we will proceed in Microsoft Edge once we work through those discussions and feedback from developers and the community. - Kyle

... so basically "no comment"

I wouldn't say that - the honest truth is we're still working on figuring out the best path forward. - Kyle

Is the head of your team called "the edge lord"?

We prefer to just call him Chuck, but we'll give that a try the next time we address him. Thanks! - Ali

With firefox stepping heavily into the world of private browsing, what is Microsoft doing to stay relevant in that regard? I would use Edge more if you could guarantee and prove that my browsing behavior isn't being tracked and sold daily.

This is a great question! We definitely know how important these privacy features are to you, which is why it was one of the first features we announced for the next version of Microsoft Edge.

As a web browser we have the responsibility to protect our users safety which includes online privacy. We are committed to building features that give users control and transparency over their privacy on the web. One of our first features is Tracking Prevention with 3 levels of control to choose from, with Balanced setting being the default.

You can also check out our What's Next page for more details on what's coming up in Edge: https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com/en-us/whats-next

Are there privacy-specific features that you are especially interested in?
-J.T.

IDK the exact name for this but something like having Facebook or other services be contained so that they cannot track you on other sites. Like they're within their own browser almost.

Containers is a cool feature! We're investigating many features, this included. -J.T.

what will happen to adblocks in Edge?

We definitely hear from customers that this is an important scenario, and we're happy to support several great content blocking extensions in Edge. We also support the full catalog of Chrome extensions, if you have a favorite that isn't in the Microsoft Store just yet. Try them out and let us know if you run into any issues! - Kyle

Edit - One thing I'd add here is we're also investing in tracking protection, which is another way we see opportunities to improve the browsing experience across the web.

I don't think you understood my question. Google wants to take down (or limit) the adblocks that exist in their store like uBlock Origin for example. Are these adblocks gonna be limited in Edge too?

Got it! Yes, I misinterpreted your question, but answered in another reply - https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/c094uf/hi_reddit_were_the_team_behind_microsoft_edge_and/er2yqsk/

Reposting here -

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Great question! At Build, we started to talk about some specific commitments around user privacy and the quality of the browsing experience, as well as our goal to be customer-focused in terms of how we build the platform and when we intervene on the user’s behalf. One specific example is the tracking protection features we announced at Build; we also hear from many customers that access to robust content blocking solutions is super important to their browsing experiences.

In the specific case of the extension Manifest V3 changes being discussed in the Chromium community, we are in ongoing discussions with a number of popular extension developers and with the Chromium community to understand both the technical merits and the impact to developers and customers of the proposed changes. We’ll share more details about how we will proceed in Microsoft Edge once we work through those discussions and feedback from developers and the community.

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- Kyle

I've got a few.

• Are you maintaining a fork of Chromium in order to exclude the stupid changes like Google's decision to cripple the webRequest API in order to stop people blocking ads?
• Will this fork be purely in-house, or would we have access to it? (I'm assuming here that you're doing it, because imo you'd be stupid not to get this competitive advantage over Google.)
• Do you plan to release the source code for Edge components other than the Chromium engine? I've read this, but it isn't very clear.
• Could you shed some light on why playing YouTube videos used to sometimes trigger a BSOD with "VIDEO" in the description? Did pre-Chromium Edge run some of its components in the kernel?

Oh, and thanks for moving Edge away from the Metro API towards the "normal" one: this'll fix several niggling issues with the browser I experienced back when I ran Windows 10.

We have chosen not to fork since we don't want to fragment the community, but our infrastructure does allow us to maintain patches for cases where we have a different point of view on individual changes (we talked about the webRequest/Manifest V3 changes in a couple other places - see https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/c094uf/hi_reddit_were_the_team_behind_microsoft_edge_and/er2yqsk/). In general we plan to upstream our web platform improvements to the Chromium project. - Kyle

Thanks! What about questions 2 (would we have access to your patchset?) and 3 and 4?

For #2, the answer is generally that you will have access; as both a matter of good open source citizenship as well as GPL requirements, platform work that is not upstreamed will be public (you can find these at https://thirdpartysource.microsoft.com/ for now).

For #3, the answer is a bit more case by case - we plan to err on the side of being good open source citizens, but we're still learning in this area and some features (IE mode is a good example) aren't a great fit for this approach.

I'd have to follow up on #4 - I'll try to comment back if we find something after the AMA! - Kyle

Thank you for your actual interest in answering my questions: I didn't really expect an answer to #4, and it's seriously above and beyond that you want to find out for me.

I don't want to ruin the party or anything, but isn't Chromium released under the BSD license, not the GPL, (which doesn't mandate sharing the source code)? BSD is a subset of GPL, so if your fork / patched version is GPL code then we'd have to share the source code, but you are under no obligation to do that unless you're integrating GPL code into the program… and if you're doing that, you have to release the code for the whole program.

Though, thank you for this. I was initially horrified at your (well, not yours _personally, of course) decision to replace the Edge engine with Chromium's, but this has been the first Microsoft thing I've been excited by genuinely happy about since I was 12.

This is a brilliant PR stunt, but I'm happily and enthusiastically falling for it. :-p

I may have gotten my licenses crossed - in general the answer stands from a principle point regardless of the specific requirements :) - Kyle

For those potential users of Edge -- who are on Chrome, Safari, Firefox --what is the main selling point to switch to you?

From a PR perspective and brand safety perspective, I find this fascinating.

TY for your time!

A major focus of the shift in our team is to focus on humbly listening to our customers. We don't have all the answers on our own; we need to understand our customers' needs, and these customers include consumers, web developers, and enterprises. We're hungry and excited to get people to use our new browser, and that necessitates changing the way we've worked.

I'll start by answering with a question: what are your biggest pain points in other browsers today? What things do you want in a browser?

For me, some of the things that are really exciting (that I can talk about) are the collections and privacy work we're doing, which you can learn more about on this page, or in this YouTube video from Build.

-J.T.

How long of a delay is there between what shows up in Chromium canary builds and what is in Edge canary builds, if any?

It's quick! We're still early in our journey but have worked hard to build a high quality pump to downstream Chromium commits. Right now we're on track for individual commits to be in Edge in a matter of days (I think the exact count is <5 days at present but it may fluctuate over time). As a principle we want to keep this a short as we practically can. - Kyle

Any plans for Linux yet? A lot of Chrome's usefulness for me is the shared history, plugins, etc, between all my computers, running lots of different OSes.

We don't have any technical blockers to keep us from creating Linux binaries, and it's definitely something we'd like to do down the road. That being said, there is still work to make them "customer ready" (installer, updaters, user sync, bug fixes, etc.) and something we are proud to give to you, so we aren't quite ready to commit to the work just yet.

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Right now, we are super focused on bringing stable versions of Edge first to other versions of Windows (as well as macOS), and then releasing our Beta channels. That said, we love hearing the ask and especially love details if this is important to your test infrastructure or elsewhere in your development lifecycle so we can continue to validate and prioritize this work! - Sean

Serious question - what do you think the folks over at Mozilla/Firefox do well? Do you look at non-Chrome browser experiences for differentiation, or inspiration?

Firefox has a really great set of developer tools with features that front-end developers and designers love to use. We love what they're doing in that space. We definitely look beyond Chrome for inspiration.

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- Stephanie

Just to pile on, all browsers do great work and excel in different areas - Chrome has done some awesome leadership (and we've been thrilled to collaborate with them) in areas like getting PWAs off the ground; Firefox and Safari have shown great advocacy for privacy; there are tons more examples. We definitely think the community is better off for having a diversity of implementations and innovation! - Kyle

excel in different areas

Careful or you will genericize your trademark

Word.

That’s definitely a power point.

We'll definitely take this feedback back to our Teams.

With the introduction of IE mode in edge, are there any plans to remove ie11 as a standalone browser in windows 10?

With the introduction of IE mode in edge, are there any plans to remove ie11 as a standalone browser in windows 10?

IE11 will continue to be supported on the lifecycle of the OS - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17454/lifecycle-faq-internet-explorer . No plans to remove IE11. Thanks! Colleen

What if we ask nicely, will you do it then?

LOL - I love the fact you are asking nicely. Thank you! But we will continue to support IE11. - Colleen

Is the IE tab going to exist on the macOS version or will that be Windows specific?

Is the IE tab going to exist on the macOS version or will that be Windows specific?

IE mode will be supported where IE11 is currently supported so yes, it is Windows specific. Thanks! Colleen

Do you feel that Edge is elderly-friendly? I just updated my grandma from Windows 7 to Windows 10. I downloaded Internet Explorer to keep her experience as consistent as possible - was that a mistake? What's your pitch for grandmas that just want to look up recipes, check email, and look at social media?

+1 - if there was an accessibility feature for the elderly beyond large text, that would be a huge help for my family.

We would love to know if there is a specific feature that you feel would be the most beneficial to you and your family. A large part of our goal with the next version of Microsoft Edge is to not just build a browser that we want, but a browser that our community wants and needs. We'd love for you to share your feature thoughts over on our forum if you're willing. You can find our forum at the link below.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Edge-Insider/ct-p/MicrosoftEdgeInsider

Ok thanks!

If I could TL;DR it (and others here may have opinions) think of a TV remote, and tape off all buttons except channel up/down, volume up/down, and guide.

That's what an elderly browser functionality needs to be.

So translate the TV remote guide button into some visually easy to use discovery feature for news, video, etc. Think the original AOL chat room/category buttons of like 12 or whatever they were.

I imagine Cortana could be a big help here, but the elderly would need very clear discovery to use Cortana in the browsing experience to do anything. Every time. They may not remember how to do it after one intro to it

This makes a lot of sense. Thanks! As stated in the first reply below things like the new tab page I think are a great help in that goal of "Only volume and channel guide" reducing the noise is huge and something that many have already found value in. Love your mindset here and appreciate your feedback.

Great question. I would say that it is "elderly-friendly". In addition to the accessibility features that we already have (read aloud, etc.) I believe that our current and upcoming features are very user, and "elderly-friendly".

My mother who is grandma herself has been using our developer channel since our launch back in April and absolutely loves some of the new features. Two of her favorite features are, the customization of the new tab page, and the upcoming Collections feature.

The ability to customize her new tab page and reduce the "noise" has been a big seller for her. She loves the daily image she receives from her inspiration setting, and the ease of getting to her favorite websites via her favorite icons on the same page.

For future features she has commented on how excited she is for collections. Like your grandma, my mother loves to cook and is often recipe snipping online. Currently this is a fairly lengthy process in which she has to copy and paste, snip images, and move them into a word document. When she saw the collections announcement she audible said "Wow I can't wait for this. It's going to make my recipe organization and collection so much easier"

-Shaun-

Owww... so many questions about "Why isn't Edge Chrome?"

Serious questions for you Edge folks. - What is the biggest obstacle to developing and improving a browser? - How do you deal with different data collection standards and regulations internationally? - What do you do to guarantee (as much as you are able) net security? - What can we as internet consumers do to improve net security?

Great questions! We'll take these one by one... For the biggest obstacle, it's a little hard to pick 😅

The biggest one that jumps to mind for me is the sheer scale of the web. For every change we make, there's a trillion sites, any one of which we might break. Combine that with the fact that implementations and interpretations of standards very, and that the rendering engine is practically an operating system unto itself, and things can get tricky (and expensive) fast. It's tough to balance making ongoing improvements with the need to keep everything working and accessible to users on all devices and platforms (and levels of ability). - Kyle

Why should I switch from Internet Explorer 6 to MS Edge?

Doc, is that you?

Firstly shout out to Jen who tweeted a link to the AMA, her account is full of great little Windows lifehacks (and memes)

Secondly, I really like the dark theme and overall UX of your Chromium Fork Edge, what's up next in the roadmap? :) Thanks

We're so glad you like dark theme! We a lot of great stuff coming up, from new features and UX/accessibility improvements to new capabilities for web developers. For example, soon Settings and other pages will respect dark theme too. 🙂 Our Build talk also highlights a bit of our roadmap. https://youtu.be/5vVrfYX2Rjg What would you like to see next?

And thanks for sharing the link /u/jenmsft! -William

Just a few questions!

Any plans to put the new Edge in the Store for Windows 10 users at some point?

Will you guys be adding back the reveal effects around the address bar and buttons along the top? Also, will acrylic be making a return to the titlebar?

What's the plan for Xbox/HoloLens/Surface Hub? Will the new Edge be coming to those platforms?

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Thanks!

Thanks for the questions!

In terms of Fluent, we love Fluent and we work closely with the Fluent team to add more Fluent components to the preview of Microsoft Edge. If you haven't check it out yet, head to: https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com .

Our goal is to get the next version of Microsoft Edge working on all of our Microsoft devices. So Edge will eventually be coming to those platforms but we can't make any promises around when that will be. - Zoher

Tom Bolds fan club here, how is he doing?

Sleepy and a little hungry. -Tom Bolds

Hi Edge Dev Team!

I'm a big Edge fan and user of the Edge Dev since day 1 :-)

Kudos to you for the amazing job in such a short timeframe. Keep up the good work and I'm happy to help with my feedback in the official MS Edge Dev community.

My questions:

1. Will the new MS Edge based on Chromium also be available for Android and Xbox?
2. Will it replace the current official Edge which comes with Windows 10 and if so how long will it be supported/shipped with W10?
3. Will the new Edge get the Fluent design treatment and if yes (I hope so!) then do you already know when this will probably happen?
4. Will the new Edge get as good touch input controls as the old Edge? Do you plan to improve them even better than it already was?
5. Will the Surface Pen be supported complete with the amazing Notes feature from the current Edge in order to make notes on websites?
6. Will the new Edge get a reading list feature just like the old one? I love that feature!

Thanks for taking the time and until next time. See ya in the MS Edge Dev community :-)

Thank you for being a Microsoft Edge Insider, for trying out our preview builds, and for giving us feedback! So many great questions!

1. The Android Edge app is actually already built on Chromium. Our goal is to bring the next version of Microsoft Edge to all Microsoft devices, including Xbox, but we can't make any promises around when that will be.
2. For the next version of Microsoft Edge, our goal is to ship a browser at such high quality that it could eventually become the default browser for all Microsoft devices. Our team is very focused on fundamentals and we're working towards this goal.
3. We love Fluent and we work closely with the Fluent team. We're incorporating more and more Fluent components as we evolve the look and feel of the browser.
4. We are working on improving touch input controls in the new Edge and, better yet, we're contributing those changes upstream for the benefit of all Chromium-based browsers.
5. We know users derive a lot of value from the Notes feature but we also know our current implementation may not be the right solution. We're working on this and conducting user research to ship an implementation that addresses users' unmet needs.
6. We are working to bring the reading list feature to the new Microsoft Edge.

- Zoher

What is Microsoft's stance on the announcement from google to start restricting API used by ad-blockers only to the enterprise edition? Will MS follow suite with edge? Will they continue to support ad blockers in Edge based Chromium?

Great question! At Build, we started to talk about some specific commitments around user privacy and the quality of the browsing experience, as well as our goal to be customer-focused in terms of how we build the platform and when we intervene on the user’s behalf. One specific example is the tracking protection features we announced at Build; we also hear from many customers that access to robust content blocking solutions is super important to their browsing experiences.

In the specific case of the extension Manifest V3 changes being discussed in the Chromium community, we are in ongoing discussions with a number of popular extension developers and with the Chromium community to understand both the technical merits and the impact to developers and customers of the proposed changes. We’ll share more details about how we will proceed in Microsoft Edge once we work through those discussions and feedback from developers and the community. - Kyle

What is your favorite feature and what has been most fulfilling in building?

I would have to say Collections! It was incredibly fulfilling to see people's reactions at //Build when we showed it off for the first time, we even heard there was audible gasps in the audience when it was demo'ed 😊 I get to test and use it everyday and Collections has made own web browsing so much more efficient. Planning my vacation to Asia with Collections was such a eureka moment and motivates me even more to make it better!

• Candice

When will we get a complete rebuild for microsoft edge on Android and iOS?

Thanks for the question! I'm reposting William's answer here. - Zoher

Edge on Android is already based on Chromium! On iOS all browsers have to use the platform's native rendering engine, WebKit. Our goal is to provide a unified Edge experience regardless of the platform you're on, and we're working on aligning the features and experience over time. -William

Do the Edge team have any plans they can share for improvements and new features in the chromium dev tools? I know whenever chrome updates theres a very handy blog post about whats new in dev tools, will MS also be following this philosophy?

Thanks for the question! Right now the two big improvements the team are working on bringing to the DevTools are accessibility and localization, which is all being contributed back upstream. We're also looking at ways to integrate the DevTools with VS Code. Definitely let us know what you think about the DevTools by using the :) (smiley icon) in the DevTools or tweeting @EdgeDevTools.

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-Stephanie and Zoher

When will the rest of the platform sync options become available? The browser seems super stable, but would love to have all sync options enabled soon!

When will the rest of the platform sync options become available? The browser seems super stable, but would love to have all sync options enabled soon!

Do you mean syncing with profiles so your favorites, history, settings, etc sync with the profile you sign into? If so, yes that is coming soon. If that's not what you meant, please let us know so we can help. Thanks! Colleen

What are the chances of using an anime girl as your mascot?

You mean this? :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inori_Aizawa

Do you call it Edgeium, Chredge, ChomiumEdge, or something else?

We call it Edge! Or sometimes "the next version of Microsoft Edge." What else would we call it? 🙃 -William

Thanks for the question! The browser, at the end of the day, is called Microsoft Edge and for consumers, our shift to Chromium is just called the next version of Microsoft Edge. In developer contexts, we use Microsoft Edge (Chromium) and Microsoft Edge (EdgeHTML) to differentiate between the two Edges. Check out our docs for more info: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/ - Zoher

What plans, if any, does the Team have or envision for making PWAs more seamless on Windows? I loved HWAs as you could have the power of the Web with the flexibility of the WinRT APIs. Would love an official alternative to Electron so I could light up native features without shipping anything more than my normal PWA.

Our team is now working with Google, Intel and others to bring more and more native capabilities into the web platform. You can track the currently planned features under the project name Project Fugu on the CR bug database here: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/list?can=2&q=label%3AProj-Fugu

We want web developers to be able to write to web standards and get more native capabilities over time. The next 12 months should see a lot of progress in this space with Microsoft contributing Windows implementation specifics to the Chromium code base and working to bring these through the standards process. -Jason

Hi EdgeDevs! Thanks for the hard work! I have 2 questions:

1. Can we easily add Chrome extensions that are not in the Windows Store? I need me some Better Tweetdeck!

2. Will multi-profile support be a first-class feature or is it somewhat of a secondary thing? I've noticed quite a few bugs around this (default profile from external apps, browsing on one affects newtab icons on the other, pinning the first profile to the task bar is impossible from what I can tell, etc.) which leads me to be afraid that this might be a second-class citizen. I'm hoping it's just an area that needs more attention than it has gotten so far but is expected to be rock solid by the time stable hits.

In case you care, my main use cases are: - I sometimes work from my personal PC, so separating personal and work activity is greatly appreciated! - As a web dev, having multiple profiles means multiple sessions testing the same web apps. This is tremendously helpful when logging into systems using different personas!

Can we easily add Chrome extensions that are not in the Windows Store? I need me some Better Tweetdeck!

Will multi-profile support be a first-class feature or is it somewhat of a secondary thing? I've noticed quite a few bugs around this (default profile from external apps, browsing on one affects newtab icons on the other, pinning the first profile to the task bar is impossible from what I can tell, etc.) which leads me to be afraid that this might be a second-class citizen. I'm hoping it's just an area that needs more attention than it has gotten so far but is expected to be rock solid by the time stable hits.

Yes you can add extensions from the Chrome store. If you go to the 3 dots in the right hand corner of the webpage, click Extensions, and down at the bottom left is a toggle that you click to add extensions from another store. Documentation: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/devtools-guide-chromium#extensions

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Multi-profile support. We are excited to bring this to Edge. It is still being developed and worked on and you'll see more features come as we update. We want it to be rock solid when we hit the stable release so please let us know if we're missing anything. Thanks! Colleen

Are you hiring?

We are always looking forward to add great talent to the team. You could find the the list of open opportunities on the Edge team at - https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/search-results?rt=professional&keywords=%2F%2Fedgejobs-Gaurav

What’s the plan for Chakra now? Will it be used for other things like Windbg still, or will those be switching to the v8 engine as well?

Thanks for the question! With the shift to Chromium, the next version of Microsoft Edge will use V8. That being said, various projects outside of the browser rely on ChakraCore so our team will absolutely continue supporting it. ChakraCore is open source and we welcome any and all contributions. Head to: https://github.com/Microsoft/ChakraCore/issues/5865 to read more. - Zoher

When is IE finally dying? Opening a site in Edge only to have it redirect to IE Is a crutch that needs to be removed.

IE will continue to be supported on the OS it lives on. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17454/lifecycle-faq-internet-explorer. We have introduced IE mode to help with the user experience and not have the transition be drastic. Here's a video that describes the feature in detail. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=%22IE+mode%22+pullen&&view=detail&mid=110DF36451F24F301322110DF36451F24F301322&&FORM=VRDGAR

IE11 is still very much used and needed in many countries and Enterprises so it will remain :) Thanks! Colleen

I have a few questions:

• Have the plans to remove flash support in 2020 from Edge next changed due to the move to chromium?
• The current versions of Edge on Windows and Android have a reading list feature. Will that be added to the new version of Edge?
• Will Windows Ink support be added to the PDF reader?
• Will any Cortana features be added back?

No the plans have not changed in removing Flash. We have a blog post here:

https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2017/07/25/flash-on-windows-timeline/#1FVZRB9Y7CuZ2FGB.97 We'll be updating soon on deprecation details. Thanks! Colleen

flash

We're in the process of adding Reading List, integration with Cortana, and many of the other Edge features you know and love. For more details, I'd recommend watching our session from Build where we discuss this topic in much more detail: https://youtu.be/5vVrfYX2Rjg?t=1462 -William