Microsoft is moving its Edge browser to the Chromium engine, meaning improved web compatibility for the default browser on Windows 10. This should mean that all of Google’s services work well with the new version of Edge, but beta testers found out earlier this week that Google Meet, Google’s enterprise messaging service, had suddenly stopped working. Google Meet users were greeted with a prompt to download Chrome or Firefox, generating fears that Google’s services wouldn’t play well with Microsoft’s new Edge browser. The reality is different, though.
“We view the increased adoption of Chromium and WebRTC as positive for the entire Unified Communications industry,” explains a Google spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “With the recent release of developer previews for Edge, we are thrilled to be able to offer a new preview experience of Hangouts Meet, and we plan to officially support it once it becomes generally available.”
We understand that Google doesn’t have a block list for Google Meet, rather an allow list, and that Google should be supporting Meet on the new version of Edge very soon. Microsoft’s latest version of Edge initially worked before it switched to a new user agent string, and Google Meet stopped working. There might have been genuine fears about Chrome-only sites only a year ago, but it seems the worries about Google blocking out the new Edge are just fears, for now.