Google denies Blacklisting Chromium-based Edge

We reported yesterday that Microsoft’s new Chromium-based Edge suddenly stopped working with Google’s Meet website, raising the spectre of the browser battles continuing even after Microsoft adopted Google’s rendering engine.

In a statement to the Verge however Google denied that they blocked the Edge Insider browser intentionally, saying that the Meet website in fact only allowed a short list of browsers, which does not include Edge, in. They explained  the video calling service worked on a whitelist, and that the first Edge build still used the Chrome user agent, while later ones use the proper Edge user agent, and therefore was blocked.

“We view the increased adoption of Chromium and WebRTC as positive for the entire Unified Communications industry,” a Google spokesperson told The Verge. “With the recent release of developer previews for Edge, we are thrilled to be able to offer a new preview experience of Hangouts Meet, and we plan to officially support it once it becomes generally available.”