Recent (limited) testing of Microsoft’s Edge browser has shown a potentially game-changing update: rounded edges.

According to Neowin, XenoPanther brought attention to the probable change on Twitter by sharing a screenshot of Edge Canary (the earliest testing version) with rounded edges for the actual area of the browser viewing the web page.

Certainly not everyone will appreciate the rounded corners at the top and bottom of the page-scrolling bar (we’ll get back to that in a second), but they provide a unique flair to this otherwise conventional design.

Keep in mind that, as XenoPanther points out, there are other Edge testers out there (some of whom comment on the aforementioned Twitter thread) who claim they don’t see this change.

So it seems like a change that has only been implemented for a select group of users (so-called A/B testing), and depending on how things go, it may be rolled out to the rest of the population (still in testing, mind – to gauge further reaction from a larger userbase).

Prioritize Consistency, but is this Too Much?

The redesigned rounded design of Edge’s core page display area has been met with some resistance from users. The problem here is that the rounding occurs regardless of whether the browser is presented in a window or in full screen mode.

We agree that the latter looks strange and distracting, especially when presenting full-screen media like a video clip, and it also takes away from the viewing area.

One Twitter user complained to Microsoft, “Stop giving things round edges!” (expletive omitted).

However, we understand that Microsoft is just being consistent with its design philosophy, which favours rounded corners over sharp ones, beginning with Windows 11. Yet, the full-screen nature of the rounding seems excessive; however, this is still in its infancy and will very sure be improved upon in the future (or indeed ditched based on feedback, perhaps).