Ongoing sync between Microsoft Edge and Chrome - Discussion

akhator 

If you are still looking for ongoing sync between Microsoft Edge and Chrome, please share some more details about your scenario.

Why would you like an ongoing sync between the two? What problem would it solve for you?

My workplace is still using Chrome as their main browser and are unlikely to change anytime soon.

But I prefer Edge(Chromium) because it is far more responsive and less resource intensive atm.

Do you expect to leverage this ongoing sync only for a short period of time (for instance during initial assessment of Microsoft Edge) or for long period (continue to use multiple browsers)?

For as long as my employer continues to use Chrome instead of Edge.

How would the absence of this ability change your perspective on Microsoft Edge adoption?

I might have to consider switching back to Chrome for sharing work related web resources between home and work.

Would the creation of a Chrome extension fulfil your requirement?

Probably if it allows 2-way syncing of bookmarks

• akhator  says: If you are still looking for ongoing sync between Microsoft Edge and Chrome, please share some more details about your scenario.

I am looking for ongoing, bidirectional, sync between MS Edge and Chrome, as I describe below.

• Why would you like an ongoing sync between the two? What problem would it solve for you?

I would like ongoing bidirectional sync for reasons that include the following:

a)  I would like to use MS Edge  because it has the reputation of being better in combination with Dragon speech recognition, which I need for accessibility reasons.

b)  however, my employer is a Google shop:  Gmail, Google docs, Google accounts,…  My employer's IT department is reluctant to support MS Edge, and only officially supports Google Chrome and Chrome apps. I know that they are supposed to work in both places,  but if IT  refuses to look at MS Edge when I have a problem…

c)  Nevertheless, I would like to be able to use MS Edge for both work and personal as long as it doesn't have trouble. But when I need help from IT, I may have to switch back using Chrome.   and when I switch back, it is more convenient to have my environment synced,  including bookmarks/favorites etc.

d)  furthermore, some of my work involves developing  webpages,  server-side apps, and browser side apps that must render on  multiple browsers. Chrome and FireFox required; MS Edge  is not yet a requirement, but it sure would be nice to make  them work on MS Edge because I would like to use MS Edge.  On Windows and  Linux,  Android and iPhone and some IoT.   It would be nice to be able to develop some of these things on MS Edge, e.g. composing the JavaScript writing, but I'm not yet able to switch  completely. Anyway, wherever I work I would like to have my environment, at the very least my bookmarks.

 By the way, my priority for synchronization is as follows:

*  bookmarks -  at the very least because some of the web locations that I need to test will be in my bookmarks

*  extensions/add-ons -  nice to have, not required

*  passwords and accounts -  almost definitely not,  except for the minimum required to synchronize bookmarks. I certainly will not use browser password management. I use LastPass.

• Do you expect to leverage this ongoing sync only for a short period of time (for instance during initial assessment of Microsoft Edge) or for long period (continue to use multiple browsers)?

Forever. Or at least until one of Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome is end-of-lifed.

Forever -  for the "develop stuff  that targets multiple browsers",  and also the "develop using tools that run in multiple browsers" use cases.

For the foreseeable future  I expect to want to be able to switch transparently between MS Edge and Google Chrome, i.e. using both of them as "home"  browsers.  in much the way that I  maintain the same environment on Firefox and Chrome.   Sync, though, always has problems.

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BTW, since syncing bookmarks is my primary concern,  I do have another  option:   I can try to avoid using browser bookmarks, and save the  links that I want to save in a shared document.  E.g. in Google Drive,   which I know  allows concurrent manipulation  from different machines and accounts  and has good enough off-line support . 

It is possible that the same thing could be done in MS OneDrive,  although I had enough problems with concurrent editing and Synchronization failures in  OneDrive that I am reluctant to do that at this time.

I have used the DIY cloud file system approach for synchronizing bookmarks before, although at the moment I don't have any plug-ins and make it particularly easy.

I would be very happy if Microsoft Edge provided the ability to store bookmarks/favorites in a OneDrive or other cloud file system file. Not just export once, but continuously. Ideally, if MS Edge just used the cloud file as the bookmark/favorite storage.  Not only would this solve the bookmark/favorite synchronization problem in a more generic way, but it would also make bookmarks much more useful, because in such a file you can format and add a lot more metadata than you can in the typical browser-based bookmark system.

However, that would only solve  the bookmarks/ favorites synchronization issue.  it would not solve the other issues like extensions, although as  I note those are much less important to me.

• How would the absence of this ability change your perspective on Microsoft Edge adoption?

Although I am eager to use MS Edge  to get better Dragon voice recognition, I simply cannot commit to using it  while my IT department does not support it and while MS Edge does not synchronize my environment continuously and bidirectionally with Google Chrome.

Until there is continuous and bidirectional synchronization, I am just playing with MS Edge. Not really using it. Not using it as my primary browser or even my secondary browser.

Would the creation of a Chrome extension fulfil your requirement?

It depends on what the Chrome extension does.    if the extension does continuous and bidirectional synchronization, yes.  if the extension allows all bookmarks on both Google Chrome and MS Edge to be saved in a shared cloud file, yes

But if the extension is just an export once, no.

If the extension is a slightly better export, that allows merges of data from both browsers, maybe.  that would be good enough to make it possible to use MS Edge more often,  but having to manually merge provides friction that would be an impediment. And at the moment, if there is friction,  MS Edge loses.

akhator Hi, I see this is quite a hot debate so I won't add fuel to the flame but I'd like to share my situation. I used Chrome for years until the latest version of Edge appeared on my PC. I really like it so it's now my default browser. My tablet is Android and I have an iPhone, both with Chrome. If I could have Edge on my mobile devices I would. I have many bookmarks and frequently add new ones, which I then need to manually sync between browsers. This can be time-consuming and is easily forgotten. My browsers are configured to delete history on exit so I don't need history synced, just bookmarks. Of course everyone's needs are going to be different so I wonder if a modular approach is feasible? And yes, let's respect the point of view of others! 

Hi, I recently switched to the new version of Edge on my Windows 10 pc and it's a vast improvement on previous versions. However, I use Google Chrome on my phone and tablet so I need to be able to automatically sync bookmarks as it's so easy to forget to manually sync when adding or editing bookmarks. akhator 

akhator 

Why would you like an ongoing sync between the two? What problem would it solve for you?
I use an Android phone which has Chrome pre-installed. I prefer to continue using the app as Edge for my android phone is too big (about 87MB) and I would like to keep some memory free and limit the number of apps installed. However, on PC Edge is doing good and using up much lesser memory when compared to Chrome. Moreover, sync in Chrome has been quite helpful for me to access and sign into websites quickly cross-device. After switching to Edge, it has become difficult to access content that I have already come across on the other browser without beginning from scratch.

Do you expect to leverage this ongoing sync only for a short period of time (for instance during initial assessment of Microsoft Edge) or for long period (continue to use multiple browsers)?
As long as I use android I would require this assistance, therefore long period.

How would the absence of this ability change your perspective on Microsoft Edge adoption?
From my answer above, I hope it is quite clear about the importance of this feature to users like me. In its absence I might have to switch back to Chrome. 

Would the creation of a Chrome extension fulfil your requirement?
If it can sync data in real time, it might be enough.

akhator I would love absolutely an extension for Microsoft Edge which can be logged into my Chrome account in the cloud, and which can update bookmarks/passswords/creditcards/etc in the cloud the instant I make such changes in Edge, and which pulls changes from my Chrome account in the cloud into Microsoft Edge the instant I make them.

The use case is of course so I can continue to use Chrome on other devices besides this particular PC.

If I switch to using Edge on all of my devices, I would want to be able to remove the extension.

I have seen that you have decided to kind of close this thread, but I still would like to express my sincere interest in this issue. Similar to many others, I would like to have more freedom in choosing different browsers on different devices, ideally with the option to sync my bookmarks, history and open tabs (and potentially even autofills/passwords) between different browsers and digital ecosystems. 

1. Why would you like an ongoing sync between the two? What problem would it solve for you?
   Using different browsers in different settings (workplace vs personal, mobile vs desktop, even running two browser instances on the same machine to better separate different activities)
2. Do you expect to leverage this ongoing sync only for a short period of time (for instance during initial assessment of Microsoft Edge) or for long period (continue to use multiple browsers)?
   it will certainly be a requirement to make the switch, as it makes it easier to test Edge on a single device for some time, but I could also imagine using it long-term if it's more convenient to use different browsers in different settings
3. How would the absence of this ability change your perspective on Microsoft Edge adoption?
   I won't adopt it until this issue is addressed
4. Would the creation of a Chrome extension fulfil your requirement?
   Potentially, but an alternative might be to include the google account in the list of accepted profiles

akhator 

akhator 

Total respect to all the privacy concerns in this discussion - I appreciate that we're thinking about this.

Personally, I ended up here searching for a way to continuously sync my bookmarks and bookmarks bar between Google Chrome and Edge Chromium.  This is something I would use.

Perhaps one way to offer peace of mind around this is to implement it as an optional extension, and have the extension permit us to choose what gets sync'd.  Like in my case - bookmarks only - but one could opt-in for deeper syncing like search history, etc.

akhator 

1. Why would you like an ongoing sync between the two? What problem would it solve for you?

Yes - I need to use different browsers at different places.

1. Do you expect to leverage this ongoing sync only for a short period of time (for instance during initial assessment of Microsoft Edge) or for long period (continue to use multiple browsers)?

Long Period

1. How would the absence of this ability change your perspective on Microsoft Edge adoption?

It would make it harder, sadly

1. Would the creation of a Chrome extension fulfil your requirement?

Maybe - but only if it's a two-way sync (to and from Edge)