Microsoft is reportedly working on a new feature that allows users to copy and paste links with a preview of the linked webpage.
Microsoft Edge’s ‘Web Preview’ Feature Sends Copied Links In Edge To Microsoft
According to a Reddit post by user Leopeva64-2, the “Web preview” feature is designed to enhance the copy-paste capabilities in the Edge browser. It will generate link previews and allow users to copy and paste the links in text fields with additional information, such as a headline and thumbnail.
However, the drawback is that it needs to send more information to Microsoft servers, as explained on its Settings page:
Web preview may send data to the URL destination and may call Microsoft services.
To view the “Web Preview” option in Microsoft Edge, go to Settings and click on the Share, copy, and paste panel. Then, you can view the URL copy & paste format default option with three sub-options: Web preview, Link, and Plain text. Click on Web Preview for copying and pasting, and that’s it!
If you wish to try out the feature, you need to right-click on any website you prefer and click on the Copy preview link. Then, go to the site or forum that you have selected and paste the preview link. This should create the title of the post you copied, along with its featured image.
The behavior of the “Web preview” feature changes depending on the website you are trying to share. For instance, this feature does not work on platforms like X (formerly known as Twitter), Reddit, and Disqus, notes the Reddit user, indicating that these platforms are not integrated or support the “Web preview” feature.
As per Reddit user Leopeva64-2, Microsoft has been internally testing the “Web preview” feature “for quite some time” but has not made it available for public testing.
“This feature has been tested (INTERNALLY) for quite some time, I don’t know why Microsoft hasn’t enabled it by default yet (not even with a flag), maybe there is a serious bug and that’s why they haven’t enabled it (not even in the Canary version),” the Reddit user said.
Microsoft has yet to comment on the information shared in the Reddit post. Until then, it is better to take this information with a pinch of salt. Stay tuned for more Microsoft Edge updates, as this is a developing story!