Microsoft Edge is testing a very useful new split-screen mode

For example, the case of an interesting split-screen utility, currently hidden as an experimental flag.

Accordingly, the latest stable versions of Microsoft Edge currently contain an experimental flag for a feature called 'Microsoft Edge Split Screen'. When activated, users will see a split button appear on the main toolbar, displaying a grid of tabs when clicked. Selecting a tab moves the current tab to one side of your screen, while the selected tab takes up the other half.

You can adjust the size of each side by dragging the center bar and the tabs are divided into two halves with a blue underline on the tab bar. The address bar is also bisected.

There's not a lot of fun here if you're used to using a Windows or Linux desktop with the ability to dock windows in split or grid layouts — you can drag tabs into their own windows, dock each tab aside and move the tabs between them as needed. However, there is a unique ability here. That is, the options menu that appears when hovering over the split tab (or right-click menu on a page) has the option to open links from one side of the page on the other side. This can be useful if you're flipping through a page to find the right link but don't want to keep going back and forth or opening new tabs.

Microsoft Edge is testing a very useful new split-screen mode Picture 1

You can try this out by opening edge://flags/#edge-split-screen (copy and paste this link into your browser address bar), clicking 'Enabled' in the highlighted dropdown menu bookmark and restart the browser when required.

It should be noted that each flag is an experimental feature on Chrome, and is hidden by Google to imply that the feature is still in the development phase. Google also warns that activating and testing flags can lead to unannounced risks. For instance, they may not work correctly and negatively impact your browser's performance.

Samuel Daniel

Update 07 April 2023