We take a look at Internet Explorer 11 for Windows Phone 8.1

By Sam Sabri
last updated

Microsoft has just announced the next browser you’ll be using in Windows Phone 8.1. Building off the foundation of Internet Explorer 10 comes Internet Explorer 11. At first glance you might not notice too many new changes to IE 11, but there are plenty of tweaks to give you a better browsing experience. You’ll find InPrivate browsing, improvements in Data Sense, a new reader mode, tabs from IE on other devices and much more. Let’s check out IE11 for Windows Phone 8.1.

We’re really liking the changes Microsoft made with IE 11 in Windows Phone 8.1. Having tabs sync across Internet Explorer in all your devices sounds is a feature we’ve seen implemented before with wonky third-party apps, but having it built it will be very nice.

InPrivate browsing, reader view and the ability to save passwords are just some of the features we’re looking forward to in IE 11.

What about you? 

Sam Sabri
Sam Sabri
129 Comments
  • I love how the private tab is browsing Porn Hub...
  • HAHAHAHAH KEEN EYES! 
  • that was kind of....shocking that they posted that image lmfao.
  • What about ability to save games on sd card..?
  • yes, you can... most of the games can save it to your SD card...(I haven't tried every game). Some apps can't save to SD card as the app need to be installed in phone to work.
  • Let's be honest, is there any other common use for InPrivate browsing?
  • Yes, browsing profiles on LinkedIn without the profile user having your account show up.  Very helpful for avoiding getting on the radar of recruiters.
  • for sake of argument we can say banking or other financial activities
  • Yes, although I'm sure 99% of the time it's used for porn. Shopping for x-mas/birthday presents for someone that shares your computer. Looking up info for a personal medical condition or medication. Lunch time personal web browsing (wpcentral for example) on a work laptop so that all of your hobby related web habbits don't show up in a meeting/presentation later. Visiting any website owned by Google (half joking). Hiding your obsession with MyLittlePony.com (ok, I ran out of ideas).  
  • LMFAO
  • HAHA!  Saw that as well!
  • WOOOOOOOOOOOOW
  • Showing those InPrivate pages in the 'recent' pages is not so private..  ?
  • i think because its currently open not because its was a recently open  
  • +521
  • They say that once a picture is on the Internet, its real hard to get rid of... Quick someone hit their home button and their camera button on their phone to take a snapshot before its gone... :)
  • I was just about to post the same thing rofl!!!
  • That's honesty for you. Not like the "secretly buying a present for the missus" scenario depicted in the IE (8?) TV ads.
  • u naughty cock
  • Hahahahahahh..... And they were saying that wp8 was a children's software. That proves them totally wrong 
  • +69
  • +Lumia69
  • Great observation!
  • The UI still sucks. Sorry, someone had to say this.
  • Can you be more specific?
  • Still that just the one button option besides the address bar.
  • No, there are now two because stop/refresh is in the address bar.
  • What other buttons do you want to shove in that small area?
  • Good to see the improvements with windows phone 8.1...expecting something very surprising apart from the leaks
  • WP8.1 IS THE BEST
  • So far so good.
  • At the top of IE I have seen two messages that my browser is out of date I should update. Is it talking about 8.1??
  • That's just ignorant sites trolling you. Don't worry about it.
  • Or virus.
  • Yes, good point -- often this can be a link to malware (depends on what kind of site you're on).
  • Omg pornhub is on there XD
  • Pornhub??? Hahaha
  • Why the hell isn't there still an open in background tabs option?! I thought that was a basic feature??
  • Man, disappointed that they still can't come with 'open new tab in background'. Can it be that difficult to code such a thing in WP8? Is that concept patented, and MSFT can't use it?  
  • What exactly are you guys talking about? Touch and hold the link and open in new tab. I do this all the time and hit back immediately. I wish it would open in the background but I just hit back and it loads while I'm continuing to fap to.. I mean reading whatever I was reading before.
  • If it's that easy to just go back then there's no problem, thanks!
  • LMAO +925.
  • IE such a battery drain on the phone.  Hopefully they optimize it.    anyways, will favorites sync up across all platforms?  Like if my favorites on my IE for my PC will sync up auto for the windows phone IE?  that would make things easier. 
  • I'd hope so.  When I got my Venue 8 Pro I was amazed when it sucked in favorites from my laptop.  I also hope there is a better way to organize favorites.  Right now I just put numbers in front of similar topics.  Like a 1 in front of tech favorites, 2 in front of fitness topics,  etc.
  • Try using the emoticons. There's a ton of them. That's what I do.
    Edit: nevermind, I see you were referring to the venue. Not sure if that has emoticons.
  • If favorites don't sync thats yet another huge dissappointment with WP... its 2014... time to AT LEAST catch up...
  • I was very surprised to find that they didn't sync up when I got my WP. I too hope that this is added in, as I already sync them through OneDrive between computers and home and office. If you do the same thing (move your favorites folder to OneDrive) you can download the Favorites Manager app on your phone to at least access your current favorites when you're away from your computer, if not update them.
  • *heavy breathing*
  • Hyperventilating
  • Still no forward button. :( I think it would be more relevant in WP than with others because the back button location causes lot of accidental back hits.
  • Exactly what I was thinking. Also, I HOPE that I can have my own home page and NOT it being the last page visited.. Wouldn't want someone to see that I've been to pornhub
  • And also because a lot of time the page you were at doesn't exist in "recent" for some unknown reason, so you can't go back to it there either. The navigation in IE for WP is maddening, and the lack of a forward button is disappointing to say the least.
  • I really hope there will be hand-on demo of email: if there is ability to attach pdf's, docs, file manager and also about if there is advanced search feature in email.
  • The tabs on other devices option is awesome, except that I refuse to use IE on anything I can use Chrome on...
  • Come to the light side ...
  • Out of curiousity why? It's been proven that IE11 is faster and security wise they are both equal. With this you get cross device compatibitlity (since there is no chrome on wp). The only real reason i can think of are chrome specific extensions.
  • Chrome is also terrible running on windows touch devices and high dpi screens. Chrome is a good browser, but it is severely lacking in certain areas. IE is running on all of my devices, scales well, works with touch, and now syncs my content between all my devices. Is it perfect? Nope, but its the best solution out there for my needs.
  • Honestly, when chrome first came out I liked it, but since then its gone downhill. Firefox is better than chrome as an alternate browser, with opera and IE being my primary choices, respectively. I know I know, opera sucks; but it has a couple of very minor features that no other browser implements as smoothly. And I just got used to them being there.
  • And STILL no forward button......come on!!!!
  • I wonder if its swipe to go back a page.
  • I read one dev say swipe for back and forth. Dan can you confirm?
  • There is one feature you forgot to mention, Daniel, but it was shown at the end of that review video: The URL bar vanished after not being used/finished loading the page. How does one bring it back though?
  • Cool, out of anything in IE, that was the number one thing that I had hoped for.
  • my reaction on this feature: FUCK YEAH
  • LET THE FAPPINGS BEGIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Can't wait for the update.I want all thsese features in my lumia 920. I want more tiles!!!!! IE 11, cortana, notification center and list goes on and on
  • Omg there's porn over that tab!! That was awesome!!!! 
  • no forward button?
  • Some are saying swipe to go back and forth.
  • Will it finally sync favorites with the desktop version?
  • That's what I really want to know as well!
    EDIT: Just watched another video and it confirms that favourites are synced to windows 8 IE
  • WP is even more awesome now! Can't wait to get this sweet update on my lovely Lumia 925! Thanks Microsoft for listening to user feedback and our wishes!
  • In the tab menu what's the "Other"?
  • Ok tab sync and incognito mode were like obvious additions
    What is a small thing that is missing is the "forward button" this is a simple navigation feature which doesn't require any extensive programming
  • Yes. Forward and a proper history. WHY is there no forward in it???
  • do upload of photos work now? I have to switch to UC browser with wp 8.0 now :\  
  • That was a big yawn if there ever was one. Reader mode? Text reflow when zooming?
  • No text reflow please, it makes browsing super slow on android IMO.
  • Then you've been using the wrong browser, it was super smooth in Maxthon on my measly Xperia Ray.
  • It wasn't slow but I drove me nuts now when you would turn your phone into landscape, either accidentally or not, it would reflow you to a totally different part of the webpage. Made reading long comments threads difficult. I'd at least like the ability to make it an option.
  • Absolutely an option, to each his own.
  • loool pornhub. I think conference is veeeery interesting for you :D
  • Pop up option?
  • I was really hoping for full screen browsing- is this not something a lot of people want?
  • Watch the video, the address bar disappears automatically.
  • Sweet- good catch!
  • I use "recent" all the time. Should be second under favorites, IMO. Small gripe though. My biggest question is, does "recent" actually SHOW ALL RECENT PAGES now? It's a mystery to me how it works. For example, it never shows any Facebook pages in my history, which is supremely weird. I can't figure out how it works...
  • I think it works by showing recent tabs rather than pages, so if you regularly go to other pages after browsing facebook and then close it, it won't show up, which is just strange.
  • I still want my tabs to be visable at the very top like in Dolphing Browser in Android :(
  • Are downloads available now?
  • What about JavaScript and flash player ?
  • What about them?
  • Yes it has JavaScript, no it doesn't have Flash. Same as IE10.
  • What I really want to see is how it handles HTML5.  Ultimately, I rely on Google Voice. Without MetroTalk I need to use the browser but the web app on Windows Phone 8 is highly lacking. 
  • how many tab can I open now?
  • Great question. I love how it freezes our tabs for long periods of time but I'm ready for more than six now.
  • The 'brightness' feature Daniel mentions and says it doesn't quite work yet -- that's because it's for Reading mode, not general browsing. Same as on W8.1.
  • Can anyone please tell me where to get that software to get windows 8.1 as preview?
  • Google it ya lazy fuck.
  • What about html5 website like the verge? I can browse it smoothly now?
  • That's strange. The Verge has always worked well for me on multiple devices.
  • still no IE dedicated back/forward buttons...or at least swipe similar to iPhone/Windows 8? man thats frusterating. I love the 930 but with this very minor but important feature missing its extremely annoying.
  • Just because Daniel doesn't show it, doesn't mean the swiping is not there. It's better to check for yourself later when you have 8.1.
  • Soo, where is the forward button? :(  
  • Please demonstrate the password filler nexty time.
  • AM I THE FIRST ONE TO NOTICE THAT WHILE BROWSING THAT PROGRESS BAR DISAPPEARS????
  • No.
  • Did I see that correctly? Does the address bar autohide after few sec??
  • Is there open tabs in background? Form auto fill? Password saving? Clear history without clearing cookies?
  • aren't we able to download and save mp3 files or recognised files on our phone?
  • I love Windows Phone and definitely want to see it thrive. But please don't add comments to the video saying that Android Phones would be jealous of a feature if you're not 100% positive that the feature is missing.   Do not track has been on Chrome for Android for quite a while now.
  • Private browsing, on any device in general, does not make any sense in this day and age. If one really wants private browsing, there will need to be facility for an open vpn based solution to proxy and encrypt all your traffic through a provider who does not store logs. Adding Tor-like functionality on top of this would be the ultimate. Aside from that, everything else in this update is extremely delicious and I am eagerly awaiting the release.
  • I'm glad to see improvements on IE they need them badly imo..i still rather Chrome and Mozilla so I hope that comes together quickly ie is really sufficient for sites I go on and is quite frustrating at times..i just moved over from android so excuse me if it seems like im trolling im just voicing my opinion
  • Insufficient* typo
  • Off topic, but, can you swipe down to close out apps. 
  • Still no saving or even syncing of passwords? Posted via the WPC App for Android!
  • What? Did you watch this video or build? Dan explicitly states that both of these features are there.
  • Is there a native download folder in IE11 ?
  • Could someone confirm whether IE 11 in WP8.1 includes hover touch support for simulating hovering over menus in web sites with a (perhaps long) tap? Support for that was included in IE11 for Windows 8.1. Without that, many sites don't work well msdn.microsoft . com/en-us/library/ie/dn265029(v=vs.85) . aspx Note that I am not asking if you think that feature is necessary in your opinion. Thanks.
  • Yes, and the CSS menu sites don't function properly either. Please fix it MS.
  • And where can I change search engine to google? That option is missing on that video!
  • Porn hub!
  • where is the downloads folder? I downloaded a pdf file and it said that it has been saved to downloads folder but i am not getting the downloads folder.
  • Can't wait for the update, when? Let's hope IE11 is better than its predecesssor in speed.
  • Are we still limited to only 6 tabs?
  • How about the nasty bugs from IE10?
    Are any of them fixed? Like, no forwad, and buggy back. And how it doesnt support HTM 4 fully yet. (file upload) And how it renders text at seemingly random sizes?
  • Would be great if the new internet explorer allowed for the creating of folders of the most used favorite pages. The folders sync with my already established folders, but I can't create a new folder unless I go to my laptop.
  • I notice that the latest version of internet explorer for windows phone doesn't support desktop view on Facebook. It's a feature I love with the previous versions
  • How to know your usernames/email ids and passwords from internet explorer?