Microsoft announced back in December of 2018 that it was building a Chromium-based Edge browser, which then became generally available in January 2020. An advantage of using Chromium is the ability to run Chrome extensions. However, Google had a somewhat dissuasive banner for Edge users recommeding them that the extensions be used on Chrome for them to run “securely”.

It looks like with the backlash from users and tech journalists, Google has decided to remove the banner (spotted first by Techdows). It is not clear as to when this change was made. The Chrome Web Store on Edge now shows a banner from the Redmond giant itself that reads “You can now add extensions from the Chrome Web Store to Microsoft Edge – Click on Add to Chrome”.

This is a welcome change from Google since the prompt asking users to run Chrome for using the extensions securely was misleading. Any security issues with extensions are likely to affect either of the browsers.

Interestingly, even Microsoft has begun using more subtle verbiage on Edge when users head to the Chrome Web Store for the first time. The message asks users to ‘Allow extensions from other stores” to be able to run Chrome extensions. This contrasts with some earlier messages which implied that running “unverified” extensions from other stores might affect performance.

With the two companies working together to contribute to Chromium and bring about features from each other’s offerings, refraining from petty tactics to dissuade users from using competing offerings seems like the right thing to do.