Microsoft Edge now features a significantly more responsive user interface. The browser now has a First Contentful Paint (FCP) below 300ms.
That figure, which illustrates how quickly UI elements load in Edge, is a major milestone for the Edge team. Lisa Klink, a principal product manager at Microsoft, shared the news in a blog post:
"We set this ambitious performance target because industry research shows that waiting longer than 300 to 400ms for the initial content can significantly impact user satisfaction. By meeting this critical threshold, we ensure that the most used browser features appear almost instantly, letting you engage with the content sooner."
Klink explained that the Edge team has reduced load times by an average of 40% since February of this year. The improvements can be seen across 13 browser features, including Settings, Read aloud, Split screen, and Workspaces.
The blog post highlights the following improvements:
- Settings: you can now more quickly load and navigate to the browser settings and customize your browsing experience.
- Read aloud: to experience AI-powered reading of webpages in more languages, accents, and voices—all with reduced startup time and smoother playback.
- Split screen: effortlessly switch between tasks and windows with near-instant navigation and less loading delays.
- Workspaces: from the moment you open a page, tasks feel more responsive and intuitive, allowing you to dive into your work without delay.
The improved loading speeds are the result of implementing WebUI2.0, which is an architecture designed to minimize the size of code bundles and the amount of JavaScript code needed to initialize UI elements.
The Microsoft Edge team often highlights improvements to the browser. Back in April, they shared that Edge was 9% faster as measured by Speedometer 3.0. Several features in Edge are designed to improvement performance as well, such as sleeping tabs and startup boost.
Edge should see performance improvements across several other features in the near future. According to the Edge team, Print Preview, Extensions, and other parts of the browser should get better in the coming months.
