Which browsers are officially supported, and what else do I need?

Question

Which browsers are officially supported by Stack Exchange?

Also, what else is needed in order to use every feature of the site?

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Answer 1

Which browsers are supported?

We support the last two stable versions of the browsers that we see the vast majority of our visitors actually use. This does not include beta/dev releases, which are not supported.

The supported browsers, in practice, based on the above guideline:

• Standard View
  • Firefox (current version status from Wikipedia)
    • Current and ESR versions are supported.
  • Chrome (current version status from Wikipedia)
  • Opera (current version status from Wikipedia)
    • Presto-based Opera is not supported
  • Safari (current version status from Wikipedia)
    • Exception: Safari on Windows
  • Edge (current version status from Wikipedia)
• Mobile View
  • Chrome for Android
    • Supported: Last 2 versions
  • Mobile Safari (iPhone browser)
    • Supported: last 2 versions.

Our browser support can be visualized using this Browserlist configuration string.

If your browser isn’t in this list, it still may work, but with a degraded experience. Less common browsers people have tried:

• Standard

  • Vivaldi
    • Works
  • Brave
    • Works
  • Avast Secure Browser
    • Works
  • Falkon
    • Works

• Mobile

  • Internet Explorer Mobile
    • Works with Windows Phone 8, at least
  • Microsoft Edge Mobile
    • Works with Android, Windows 10 Mobile unconfirmed
  • Firefox for Mobile
    • Stack Overflow appears to function properly in 10.0.3
  • Chrome for iOS
    • Stack Overflow appears to function properly in the latest version
  • Opera Mobile
    • Stack Overflow appears to function properly in 12.0.1
    • Exception: Opera Mini
  • Symbian
    • Unsupported

What else do I need?

There are requirements beyond using a modern browser for getting the best possible experience:

• JavaScript must be enabled.

• Cookies must be enabled.

• Images must not be blocked. (Since CSS Sprites are widely used.)

• The following sites should be accessible:

  • sstatic.net (and its subdomains) for Stack Exchange JavaScript and CSS static resources

  • googleapis.com for jQuery effects

  • api.recaptcha.net for viewing CAPTCHAs

  • *.gstatic.com and apis.google.com for viewing the Not a Robot test

  • i.stack.imgur.com for viewing most images

  • stackauth.com for Global Network Auto-Login. This feature uses HTTPS, so your browser must accept its SSL certificate. It also requires a browser that supports HTML5 Local Storage, such as Internet Explorer 8+, Chrome, Safari, Firefox 3.6+ or Opera 10.61+, and you'll need to accept some third-party cookies. See also the automated tests on Network Login Troubleshooting, and notes about allowing third-party cookies in, for example, Chrome. And beware that plugins such as ad blockers might interfere.

  • gravatar.com for viewing many user avatars

  • cdnjs.cloudflare.com to see formulas on MathJax-enabled sites

  • qa.sockets.stackexchange.com for live updates on your Inbox, reputation, new questions, answers and more. This also needs both your browser and your network/security to support web sockets. See websocketstest.com to test that.