Microsoft has just started rolling out a rather interesting new feature to its Microsoft Edge Android application, and that feature is called “NewsGuard”. Basically, if you hate fake news, you will love this feature, or at least that’s the idea behind it, as NewsGuard will let you know how credible a news source is.
This feature has been available for a beta version of Microsoft Edge app since the start of this month, and it is now rolling out to the stable version. Microsoft says that “NewsGuard uses journalists to fight false news, misinformation, and disinformation”. The company says that its trained analysts, who are, essentially, experienced journalists, research online news brands in order to spot legitimate and not-so-legitimate news sources.
Now, NewsGuard is the main new feature that the company has added to this app via the latest update, but it is not the only one. The company also started rolling out “Close the browser” option, which resides in the ellipsis menu. Some bug fixes and performance improvements are also listed in the changelog, it seems.
It is also worth clarifying that the legitimacy of a news source is represented by a green-red rating scale, so, as you might have guessed, green is good, red is bad. It remains to be seen if this new feature will benefit users, as the eternal war against false news continues.
Microsoft Edge in 2018 & What It Offers
Microsoft Edge has come a long way since Microsoft released it for Android, as it has managed to become a rather compelling browser alternative to Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and other leading Internet browsers for Android.
Microsoft Edge actually hit five million Android downloads / installs in June last year, and the company had released quite a few updates for the app last year. Back in December, Microsoft actually replaced the Edge engine with Google’s Chromium Blink (that goes for Microsoft Edge in general, not the app in specific), while the browser received an ad-blocking feature earlier last year, at the end of June.
This browser actually uses AdBlock Plus in order to block unwanted ads, while it comes with a “Reading view” as well. History is a part of the offering, of course, while “Camera search” feature comes built into this application as well, and the same goes for voice search.
If you opt to link your Android smartphone with your Windows 10-based device, you can actually seamlessly sync content, like web pages, for example. These are only some of the features this browser has to offer, while the design of the app is also quite minimalistic, which is something that many people will appreciate. If you’d like to try out this browser and its newest NewsGuard feature, a download link is included down below, and it will take you directly to the Google Play Store. Microsoft Edge is free to download, it does not include ads or in-app purchases, while it is currently holding a 4.5-star rating in the Play Store, in case you were wondering.