Blocking autoplay of videos is just one of the new features introduced with the new version of Micrsoft's browser, which is increasingly complete and is now a true alternative to Chrome.
The latest release of Microsoft Edge Beta, version 89, brought with it some interesting and useful additions to the Redmond browser. Among the features and updates, one of the most appreciated by the users was the one concerning the automatic blocking of the autoplay of videos, including advertising ones.
Last February 3, version 89.0.774.18 of the cross-platform browser developed by Microsoft arrived and, to all intents and purposes, it has inherited the place occupied for years by Internet Explorer. Definitely more performing than its historical predecessor, it has recently become available in preview version for Linux, adding another piece to the family already composed by macOS, iOS, Android and Xbox One in addition to that dedicated to operating systems from Windows 10. With the latest release there are several new features that have become part of those that later, at the conclusion of the testing phase, should become definitive features of the browser.
Microsoft Edge Beta 89, how the autoplay blocking works
As already anticipated, through the latest Microsoft Edge Beta update users will be able to block the automatic playback of video ads. In a broader sense, the feature involves blocking all content in video formats that are usually loaded and started automatically when browsing the web via the browser.
If activated by the user, the feature is therefore able to limit not only the consumption of mobile traffic, especially if you have a pay-as-you-go plan, but also to avoid unnecessarily overloading the browser when you are in front of pages with a massive presence of videos.
Microsoft Edge Beta 89, what are the other most interesting novelties
Among the other integrations, another one that deserves to be mentioned is the one about the support for natural language search. With the introduction of the new version of the browser, Microsoft allows you to use natural language in searches made through the search bar and in the history, in addition to maintaining the previous methodology based on the correspondence between page titles/url and search keys.
To this, then, we also add a welcome update of the autofill function. The autofill of forms in Web pages, with the Beta 89 release, allows the three date of birth fields to be populated as well. This is in addition to what already happens with names, addresses, phone numbers and other types of information that can be requested while browsing via the browser. To change or remove the reference data, used for the procedure, it is possible to access the profile settings at any time and view and operate on the specific data.
Also speaking of autofill, among the browser's suggestions for filling in the fields, the texts contained in the clipboard also appear. This happens once you select a field related to a profile or address, such as email, city, state, phone number or zip code.