Improvements to history in Microsoft Edge

Microsoft

Today, we’re excited to share two significant updates to history in Microsoft Edge. We know you have all been eagerly awaiting history sync, and we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve started rolling out support for syncing your browsing history and open tabs across devices. We’re also excited to reveal some improvements we’re making to the way you access your history. We introduced you to a new way of using favorites in Microsoft Edge a few weeks ago, and we’re bringing many of the same enhancements to history as well.

 

As with favorites, the new history experience is designed to help you quickly get back to the sites you’ve visited previously, including tabs you’ve recently closed or have open on other devices. And many of these changes are based directly on the feedback you’ve shared with us.

 

History 1.gif

 

How often do you find the page you want in your history on the first try? Most of the time, there’s some trial and error as you switch back and forth between your history and the various pages to find the right one. The new history experience is designed to simplify this process by opening on top of the current webpage. From here, you can simply click through your history and watch as the page loads in the background. When you find the page you want, simply click anywhere outside of the history menu to close it. Of course, just like favorites, you can also pin history open for a more permanent view as well.

 

History 2.gif

 

In addition to your browsing history, you’ll also find pivots for your recently closed tabs and tabs you have open on other devices. History will even remember which pivot you were on last for faster access next time.

 

We’ve updated recently closed to remember the last 25 tabs and windows from any past session rather than just the previous one, giving you plenty of time to return later. And you can now expand a recently closed window to see all the tabs you had open inside.

 

History 3.gif

 

Support for syncing your browsing history and open tabs is a top-requested feature in Microsoft Edge. This feature is still under development and will be made available to everyone in the future, but users who are already part of the rollout will see a third pivot called Tabs from other devices. Here you’ll find all the tabs you have open in Microsoft Edge on other devices, including Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. Note: Both devices need to have history and tab sync enabled for them to show up.

 

In response to your feedback, you can now add history to your toolbar right next to favorites and Collections for one-click access. Just open the history menu, click on the history menu button (Menu Button.png), and select Show history button in toolbar. You can also customize your toolbar on the Appearance page in Settings.

 

History 4.gif

 

The new history menu also includes all your favorite features from the history page, and you can clear your browsing history via the history menu. If you’d prefer a more immersive view of your history, simply select Manage history in the history menu or type edge://history in your address bar.

 

We’d love to hear what you think of the new history experience, so please leave us a comment below or let us know via the feedback tool in Microsoft Edge! These changes are currently available for users in the Canary and Dev channels, although sync may not be enabled in all regions yet. We’re also working on updates to the user experience for downloads and other content types. Stay tuned for more details!

 

William Devereux, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Edge

87 Replies
no it won't
Painfully slow :(

We shouldn't be seeing these menus draw and fill in on high powered systems
I'd like the option to go directly to the manage page, i.e. how it used to be.

@William Devereux History sync offers a lot of convenience, and it seems everyone wants it, but does this mean that my browsing history will be on a Microsoft server, hypothetically accessible by Microsoft or discoverable by law enforcement? No, I'm not doing any weird stuff. This is a privacy issue, and I'm curious how Microsoft is handling it. Can someone point to a document or statement from Microsoft explaining this? Thanks!

@JordanQ 


@JordanQ wrote:

@William Devereux History sync offers a lot of convenience, and it seems everyone wants it, but does this mean that my browsing history will be on a Microsoft server, hypothetically accessible by Microsoft or discoverable by law enforcement? No, I'm not doing any weird stuff. This is a privacy issue, and I'm curious how Microsoft is handling it. Can someone point to a document or statement from Microsoft explaining this? Thanks!


Found this after a quick search

Microsoft Edge, browsing data, and privacy

 

Microsoft Privacy Statement – Microsoft privacy

 

 

@William Devereux  Great to hear the new improvement from u. May I know how to register to try "Tabs from other devices" feature.

@HaHoang Please go to edge://settings and click on "Sync" and scroll down until you find the option to "Sync tabs."

@HaHoang 


@HaHoang wrote:

@William Devereux  Great to hear the new improvement from u. May I know how to register to try "Tabs from other devices" feature.


at the moment it is a controlled feature rollout and only available to Edge dev and canary channels.

once you are using those channels, you can turn it on from here: edge://settings/profiles/sync

So, the iOS version still not support syncing history and open tabs?

@DDemK @Mixpower Click the ... at the top right of the history pop out and then choose Manage history and you get a full page screen. A couple of extra clicks but it is there.

I liked old history page more - there is more information (time) but I think small history pane also will be useful but I want to have a keyboard shortcut to open old history page - shift-ctrl-H, for example.

Now I added old history page to the favorites bar but shortcut would be useful.

also while I was writing this I found a bug - not every page is showing in "recently closed" tab vs "all" tab. I'll send feedback

@mkoninin  You need to close a tab for it to appear there - BTW, Can you share multiple screenshots of reproducing the bug?

"History"-"All" is not only for closed tabs? There are all pages that I visited, and in "recently closed" there are only pages that I closed. Ok, that's make sense, It's my mistake then. Thanks!

Yeah so
recently closed = pages you recently closed
all history = all history (pages you opened, closed, still open)

I know the full page still extists. But the idea is just we get a option to choose between the "new history" or just a shortcut to go directly to full history page. At least to me, full page screen is better than that new one.

Something like, "enable/disable new history".

 

 

and I found a bug when you need to search through the history. If you try to move between characters( with keyboard arrows ). You can't, the pointer just dont move between the text.

If you write something wrong like "potoato" u cant go to the left with keyboard arrows and remove the "o".

@William Devereux 

don't like it, how do I change it back I don't need a tiny little popup on the side I want it to open up a new page, one of the reasons I started using dev instead of the vanilla microsoft edge was because when you open settings or history it opened up to new pages instead of a popup. Add and option to keep the original way of opening history you should not force these changes on people


@Deleted wrote:

Add and option to keep the original way of opening history you should not force these changes on people


sorry but this is what people asked, to make it like Edge legacy...

 

@William Devereux Even when I clear my history my recently visited tabs still show up in the history section. Please help.

@mujtaba15 


@mujtaba15 wrote:

@William Devereux Even when I clear my history my recently visited tabs still show up in the history section. Please help.


Hi, which Edge version/channel are you using?

 

I just tried it on Version 89.0.726.0 (Official build) canary (64-bit) and it worked as expected

 

Spoiler
fdsfs.png

 please make sure you set this to "all time" edge://settings/clearBrowserData

fdsfds.png

 

if you do it like that and still the issue persists, please send a feedback using feedback button on Edge or shortcuts (alt + shift + i)

 

@William Devereux 

 

I know this probably isn't what you will have want to hear after clearly putting a lot of effort into this but can you please add an option to disable this Internet Explorer style history for those of us who prefer a proper Chromium style History tab.  I have been using Chromium Edge for around 18 months now so by no means a hater but I have to say this type of thing would have made me more hesitant to switch from Chrome, when this change goes out to live builds you will probably see a lot of backlash from Chromium Edge users who don't like the IE style history popup.