Support themes from the Chrome Web Store - Discussion

[Elliot Kirk]

We have heard your desire to install and use the custom themes that are available on the Chrome Web Store.  We have been working to make them work seamlessly on the next version of Microsoft Edge.  We have hit some snags along the way, with some extensions behaving in unexpected ways.  We are dedicated to providing our customers with a good user experience and so we want to work through these issues before we publish a target date.  In the meantime, we are always trying to learn more about how and why, you our customers, really use these products.  In this spirit, we would love to know how you use custom theme extensions.  For example, do you use them to personalize your browser, and make it feel more yours?  Do you use them in different profiles, so that you can tell at a glance which persona you are using while browsing the web?  Do you use them to make the browser easier to use or more accessible?  Is there something that you do with theme extensions that we haven’t even though of?  What is missing from this experience that we could add to make it truly delightful?

[#2]

Hi,
well just like in Edge classic, I want the top bar and also the main UI where browser buttons are, to be transparent with blurry effect. the effect exists also in Microsoft Launcher for Android where we can choose the amount of blurriness.
the Xbox beta app also utilizes the same theme for reference.

[#3]

@IrinaL 

more examples

The browser top bar that I was referring to 

also the larger version when viewing tab previews

or from the Windows 10 settings, very nice blurry/acrylic style that is see-through

I also want Edge insider's settings page to have the same effect, currently it has a solid color

[#4]

@Elliot Kirk For me, I use themes to make up for faults or lack of customization in the program itself.

For example, I like BLACK for Dark mode, but Microsoft uses light grey.   I would download a DARK mode theme that would make it completely black, and perhaps offer customization, like each TAB having a new color.  Sometimes it is just for fun (holiday/seasonal themes.  The reason I do not use Dark mode extensions, is they all see to have issues on web pages such as Wunderground, and display the map as a blank circle, or some other fault.

[#5]

@Elliot Kirk 

I am unable to open Chrome Web Store for the past couple of days. I know this is out of topic but I am unable to find a suitable topic to address this issue. Any help would be highly solicited.

[#6]

Hello @harindra_kumar_G 

Which Edge insider channel/version are you using?

also whenever you can't find a suitable topic, you can always open a new topic in here:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Discussions/bd-p/EdgeInsiderDiscussions

[#7]

@IrinaL 

I suppose colours would be the most basic and most broad one - the top bar, tabs and menus (like right-click) would have a two-tone colour scheme, maybe even being able to pick the two colours, and maybe another colour for the icon lines.

A transparency option would then add to this, in being able to pick how transparent these elements became.

Pictures-wise, most of the time a picture would fill behind the menu bar and tabs, but it might be nice for some people to see the whole picture on the new tab page (though not much time is spent here).

[#8]

Just my two cents: personally not a great fan of theming (in my experience it always looks messy in Chrome, doesn't really add much). As for transparency: more a distracting gimmick than functional (particularly in an app in which you spent so much production time as your main web browser).

[#9]

@elmarj Does this mean that you are fine with using the default visuals for light/dark themes? Or that you would prefer some other ways of personalizing your browser outside of Chrome themes or transparency?

[#10]

@IrinaL For me, I'm more of an accent color themer. This new accent color would affect:

1) the tab bar (must)

2) URL bar area (must)

3) the menus (including right-click) and internal pages (must)

Essentially, wherever light vs dark mode affect. Themes would just have another color (or pattern) instead of Light mode's light gray / Dark mode's dark gray.

One thing I'd actually LOVE: Chromium Edge to sync its accent color with your desktop wallpaper!

Blue-heavy wallpaper -> all the UI has a blue accent

I really love this feature as I have Windows 10 Spotlight to cycle my background photo each day and Windows 10's UI automatically picks an accent color from the current wallpaper. Could Chromium Edge do the same? Is that even possible, i.e., to read the current accent color from the OS? This might be a Windows-10-only , however, but...for me, I'm all in.

Honestly, for me, this would be more important than other customization (though I still support more and supporting actual Chrome themes).

[#11]

@ikjadoon Related to this (maybe a bug?): for people with crappy TN panels, when we select the Windows 10 theme to apply also to "Title Bars", the color contrast (text color -> background color) isn't great when hovering over inactive tab.

With this dark blue background + "Apply Accent color to Title Bars" + Chromium Edge Light theme, the text hover color on the tab bar is nigh unreadable on a crappy TN panel, but readable enough on a high quality IPS:

No hovering of inactive tabs = mostly readable text

Hovering of inactive tabs = much less readable text (low color contrast: black text vs dark blue background)

These screenshots don't quite do the issue justice since that text is quite small: when it's artificially enlarged here, the text is more readable.

[#12]

@IrinaL Hi Irina! I am definitely happy with the dark-mode theme! Indeed: for me personally (and to be honest, I guess for most users I know) chrome-style browser themes don't add use value. The few times I went to the Chrome Store to pick a custom theme, it took a lot of time to find anything decent-looking and it was never an improvement over the much more polished "stock" theme. BTW: if anything, I could see how expanding the current set of two themes (dark / light) with one or two extra well designed color themes would be a nice touch.

[#13]

Same for me, Chrome web store themes visually limit me in recognizing the texts in the tab and other parts of the browser.

[#14]

@Elliot Kirk 

Personally I find the Google Chrome themes a bit too limiting. Especially in the way they don't affect the menus/pop-ups like the three-dot menu.

I'd like to see something like Firefox has, which you can see here at Firefox Color  and see the components that can have their colours specified in the Custom Colors tab. Note the Popup background and Popup text, which affects e.g. the popup 'hamburger menu, except the popup doesn't show in the interactive upper part of that page in Edge, unlike when that page is loaded in Firefox. For me I would either want the popup background and text to be colours the user can specify, OR the popup background and text should follow the Toolbar color and Toolbar icons and text respectively, not just remain unaffected by themes as in Google Chrome..

And by the way It would be great if Edge had a facility like color.firefox.com, where the user can specify the colours they want, then save it out as a theme (zip or xpi) that can either just be used personally or uploaded to the themes part of the extensions store.

[#15]

There should be custom themes also be added on Microsoft store where people can add and find suitable themes for their needs.

[#16]

@ am not a big fan of these blurry effects at all... so not my priority. I would like to see more features than just adding GUI polishing...

[#17]

@Deleted 

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@Deleted wrote:

@ am not a big fan of these blurry effects at all... so not my priority. I would like to see more features than just adding GUI polishing...

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Well this thread/topic is only about polishing/themes and making UI beautiful

[#18]

Ditto. Extensions for Dark mode do not work well at all. Needs to be internal, and Dark not Light dark.

[#19]

Who needs chrome themes while there is ALREADY a great theme for Edge: FLUENT DESIGN! Give it back to us!

[#20]

If Fluent design also brings Acrylic/transparent theme then I'm all in too! :3

[#21]

Hello Kirk,

I just joined and have not read much here.  I'm anxious to have an additional (or more) theme for Edge, something that will distinguish Edge from other browsers that I may have open at one time. Maybe only the Edge logo in top right corner.  Then later on adding additional (maybe Chrome) themes would be nice.  Thank you.

@Elliot Kirk