

“This beta is a work in progress for developers and users who would like to see our latest advances,” the Brave announcement notes. Nightly and Canary builds can be a fun way to live on the bleeding edge, but you can also dig deeper into hidden settings menus for even more unreleased features.Brave has announced the first formal beta release of its flagship alternative web browser, a major milestone before its 1.0 release. Once you’ve gotten comfortable with beta browsers, it’s tempting to take things a step further. This runs separately from the stable version. Opera: Install the beta from Opera’s website.Brave: Install the beta from Brave’s website.(Unlike other browsers’ Dev channels, this version is functionally the same as the beta, but with some additional tools for coders.) This replaces your computer’s stable version, but you can choose the Developer Edition to install it separately. Mozilla Firefox: Install the beta from Mozilla’s website.This will run separately from the stable version, so consider setting the beta as your default. Microsoft Edge: Install the beta from Microsoft’s website.This replaces your computer’s stable version, though you can also install the beta separately. Google Chrome: Install the beta from Google’s website.

If you’re on board with this philosophy, here’s how to switch to your browser’s beta version: Most browsers will carry your bookmarks and extensions between versions, and you never have to wait for a new stable release before you’re able to downgrade. What I can remember is having a better browsing experience through early access to new features, like the ability to sync Edge’s “Collections” across devices, “Web Capture” for taking full-page screenshots (invoked with Ctrl-Shift-S), and of course vertical tabs.Īnd if you do decide to switch back, the process is usually hassle-free.

This is purely anecdotal, but I once ran the beta version of Microsoft Edge for nearly a year and can’t recall running into any major problems.
