The release of the developer preview of Windows Phone 8.1 in April included a version of Internet Explorer 11 made just for the OS. In a new post on the IE blog, Microsoft offers up more details about what the web browser team put into the Windows Phone 8.1 build.
The post talks at length about how the team made IE11 so that users could quickly get to the websites they wanted to read. The browser will display a list of a user"s most frequently visited sites when they first press the address bar and then offer predictions when a URL is typed into the bar. IE11 allows users to open an unlimited number of tabs and people who also own a Windows 8.1 PC or tablet will be able to sync their IE11 favorites, history, passwords and open tabs with the Windows Phone 8.1 counterpart.
IE11 allows for some websites to be pinned to the Windows Phone 8.1 Start screen and those pages are updated in the background with their latest news and images, instead of just seeing a static tile. There"s also support for in-line video playback so that people who surf to YouTube.com on IE11 can watch the video and read comments at the same time. Microsoft will offer more information on how website developers can support live pinned tiles and in-line video in the near future.
Windows Phone 8.1 with IE11 supports Reading View, just like the Windows 8.1 version, and also remembers website passwords. IE11 can now save downloaded files and supports InPrivate tabs, which means any data from that tab is deleted when it is closed. People who have a limited data plan can now turn on High Savings mode, which only downloads the most important content of a website. In the screenshots above, the New York Times front page is shown in regular IE11 mode on the left and with High Savings Mode activated on the right.
Source: Microsoft | Images via Microsoft