14 DAY TRIAL // Starting next week, a new flavor of the Windows Phone 8.1 operating system will begin rolling out to users out there – though only in a Developer Preview variant – and some of the enhancements included in it will be aimed at Internet Explorer 11, it seems.
According to a recent blog post from Microsoft, the platform upgrade will provide users with hundreds of enhancements in Internet Explorer 11, all meant to deliver better compatibility with the mobile web.
Moreover, the company explains that, based on user feedback, it decided to build a mobile web experience that would be consistent with what owners of Android and iOS devices can enjoy at the moment.
As you can see in the screenshots embedded below, the experience that Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 users will receive from certain popular websites out there is indeed in line with what is currently available for those on other mobile platforms.
At the same time, the Redmond-based software giant explains that the focus in this update for its mobile browser was mainly on ensuring that users receive a true mobile experience.
Thus, one of the issues that have been resolved in Internet Explorer 11 in Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 is related to browser detection.
Thus, users should no longer be delivered the desktop experience when accessing certain website, but will be provided with the mobile experience instead.
On top of that, the new flavor of the mobile browser will arrive with support for popular webkit-prefixed APIs. Thus, “sites that only send WebKit code are translated into standards based code” while the web page loads, Microsoft explains.
Support for some non-standard features (proprietary webkit-prefixed features) has also been added in Internet Explorer 11 in the upcoming update, so as to ensure that users indeed receive a good experience when accessing websites that use them.
Microsoft also notes that, given that many mobile sites use a series of features that are not supported in Internet Explorer on the desktop, mainly due to the fact that they are not popular on desktop websites, the upcoming browser version will add support for them.
“On the mobile web, most sites have been coded to use the older Touch Events model and users expect those sites to just work. In the IE11 update, we added support for touch events so that these sites would work correctly,” the company adds.
Finally, the Internet Explorer 11 will also resolve a series of interoperability bugs and implementation differences, which should end up in a much better overall experience when accessing certain websites.
