Forum Discussion
Introducing the new Extensions menu on the toolbar
For threads (like this one) that we post specifically asking for feedback, both methods mentioned in the post have equal weight. Feature teams and community managers collaborate on these posts and ensure that we're reviewing the feedback in the thread as well as what's sent via the browser.
For feedback that isn't part of a larger discussion, or for reporting bugs/issues, the in-browser feedback is the preferred method and ensures that we (community managers and feature teams) see the feedback.
The feature team is reviewing the feedback around the new extensions menu, but we are still listening to new feedback coming in both here and through the browser. So, if there's something you like, don't like, want to see done differently, or even something you have trouble doing now that you didn't before the menu change - let us know! 😃
Hello. I'm glad to hear the team is still keeping an eye out for feedback. Extensions toolbar menu has grown on me over the last couple weeks. Now I actually prefer it. However, for those who used the overflow menu, the transition can be quite rough. Hopefully, team Edge can create a less jarring on-ramp.
Why I Prefer the New Extensions Menu:
- All your extensions plus hide, more actions, manage and find more extensions are all together and just one click away. It's a better overall experience once you get used to it.
- Being able to see full extension titles rather than having to hover over each one is better for the same reason vertical tabs are better. I memorized all my extension icons. But the more you have, the more helpful this new design should be (IMO).
- Discoverability is better—especially for users who rarely venture into Settings and right-click menus.
- Makes for a cleaner, more consistent Settings menu. I like Edge's overflow menu compared to some other browsers. But in retrospect, it always looked a bit like a hack—increasingly so as you push more extensions into overflow.
Ideas for a Smoother Transition:
If you're someone who hides toolbar icons by carefully reordering then expanding your address bar and/or using the right-click hide menu, this change can feel downright rude. It's not likely to be a problem for users who rarely if ever customize or use extensions, but it's not a good idea to upset thousands of geeks who do.
- Do NOT dump all the icons a user has carefully hidden back out onto the toolbar without warning. The extensions menu should at least start with all the same icons hidden.
- Alphabetical order is a good default IMO, but previous icon order should optionally be preserved if possible. The ability to at least reorder by drag and drop, as mentioned by HotCakeX, would probably be appreciated by many.
- Using the same icon for the new toolbar menu and settings menu was confusing at first (at least for me). Since I hadn't heard about the new toolbar icon yet, I thought "how did this get promoted to my taskbar?" So, instead of left-clicking to open, I immediately right-clicked to hide it. After that, one pretty much has to do some reading and/or digging through menus to find it again. Somehow, make it as obvious as possible that this is not the settings menu control—at least on first use and before someone has a chance to right-click on it.
- The greater surprise and pain is when you discover none of the previous methods of hiding icons works anymore—especially after you've hidden the darn icon before realizing what it was. Maybe add a warning about that too in a first-experience pop-up?
- I don't know if you can make this feature optional and maintain both methods. I've already reached the point where I'm okay with the change, but we all know not everyone will be quite as receptive.
What you've pointed out and others who were "used" to this new extension button has been rinse and repeated by those who dislike this feature. There were no significant issues with Extensions at all - why fix what isn't broken? They had bigger fish to fry like having Edge be more tablet and touch friendly.
The Edge devs have "promised" a look and feel that will be independent of Chrome but it's the exact opposite - the Edge browser is starting to look more of Google Chrome than have its independent aesthetic design. Vertical tabs is putting a lipstick on a piggy - close but no cigar there IMO. It's been years since you introduced Fluent design and it's still not implemented decently in your browser and worst yet, it feels like you guys have given up and just following what Google does.
What others have suggested have been implemented by Firefox - the customizable overflow menu as shown in the screenshots below are an example of what a lot of us envision this to be. For me it's not perfect - I hope I can delete the separator...but it's much better than what Edge has.
I've been using Edge as my main browser since it was introduced (used Firefox, Opera and Vivaldi sparingly) but ever since they've been moving closer and closer to being just a copy of the world's most popular browser; I've been appreciating how Firefox has become.
azrael99"There were no significant issues with Extensions at all - why fix what isn't broken?"
True there were no significant issues for users like us. But I suspect less technically oriented users rarely go into settings, let alone dig multiple levels down where you finally discover the extensions store. Having Manage and Find new extensions one click away should make them more accessible to a lot of people.
I also have Firefox and Chrome installed, although usage is increasing rare*. The Firefox overflow solution looks very similar to me. In fact, Edge's new solution is more functional.
I agree with HotCakeX about difference just for the sake of being different. That's very low on my list of priorities. From my perspective, Edge is increasingly distinguishing itself from Chrome with features and cross-platform integrations that are important to me. IMO team Edge is doing a good job of balancing all that with maintaining broad compatibility—all while removing heavy Google tracking and services infrastructure that I rarely use anymore (except for YouTube and Maps).
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*(Embarrassingly though, I have to use Firefox to post here due to HTML errors that block me from posting when using Edge. I reported it in Tech Community forum somewhere about a year ago, but never got a response. I plan to send in-browser feedback soon.)
Less technically oriented users will just leave it be on their toolbar and move on with their lives. If not they will look for a way to remove it or hmm try to right click and hide it *shock face*
Design and Interfaces matter; Apple being the best use case for this. While being feature-heavy is fine and all, having features that really make a difference is much better. This feature is just MS capitulating to Chromium aka Google's base UI.
They are blindly following Chromium's set design since they need the marketshare. MS's engineers are some of the best in the world - they could have found a way to keep the legacy Edge UI and just use Chromium for its rendering engine while slowly tweaking it to keep parity with Chrome, but since they did such a terrible job at it with mindshare/marketshare...they just bit the bullet and joined Google's initiative. They are doing it again with Windows 10X copying Chrome OS since it is cannibalizing Windows' marketshare at an alarming rate.
They will be slow on the uptake again judging from the way they are dealing with the feedback regarding this subject. If Microsoft is not careful on how they deal with the consumer market (they are doing a great job with the business sector) - they will become the 2nd IBM.
- Spoiler
azrael99 wrote:What you've pointed out and others who were "used" to this new extension button has been rinse and repeated by those who dislike this feature. There were no significant issues with Extensions at all - why fix what isn't broken? They had bigger fish to fry like having Edge be more tablet and touch friendly.
The Edge devs have "promised" a look and feel that will be independent of Chrome but it's the exact opposite - the Edge browser is starting to look more of Google Chrome than have its independent aesthetic design. Vertical tabs is putting a lipstick on a piggy - close but no cigar there IMO. It's been years since you introduced Fluent design and it's still not implemented decently in your browser and worst yet, it feels like you guys have given up and just following what Google does.
What others have suggested have been implemented by Firefox - the customizable overflow menu as shown in the screenshots below are an example of what a lot of us envision this to be. For me it's not perfect - I hope I can delete the separator...but it's much better than what Edge has.
I've been using Edge as my main browser since it was introduced (used Firefox, Opera and Vivaldi sparingly) but ever since they've been moving closer and closer to being just a copy of the world's most popular browser; I've been appreciating how Firefox has become.
Why do you think Edge looking like Chrome is bad and if it looked like Firefox it's a good thing?
you personally appreciate Firefox, and someone else appreciates Chrome and Edge.
that doesn't mean they are wrong or right.
Edge can look like Firefox, Chrome, other browser, partially or not, or it can look like none of them, or a mixture of everything plus unique elements. either way, it's all good.
it's better to emphasize on the usability of a feature rather than its dynasty.
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