We won't support Internet Explorer after March 2021

Reblogged with permission from Care Opinion UK.

At Care Opinion we're working hard to bring you the best patient feedback platform in the world (we like to think big!). To do that, we keep a close eye on the fast-changing technologies of the web. One big change over recent years has been the way that browsers work.

Modern browsers update themselves automatically, just like the apps on your phone. That makes them faster, safer, and able to do more things for you. Modern browsers also make our lives at Care Opinion much easier, because they make our coding quicker and more reliable, and we can develop new features faster.

The Internet Explorer browser (IE) started life 25 years ago and has been standard across the NHS for many years. It was effectively declared obsolete by Microsoft 5 years ago, and recently Microsoft announced that its Teams platform won't support IE after November 2020, and other services after August 2021.

At Care Opinion, we've decided to follow suit: we won't be supporting any version of Internet Explorer after 31 March 2021.

What does this mean?

If you continue to use Internet Explorer to access Care Opinion after March 2021, you'll find that most things do still work. However, there will be two downsides:

• you may encounter some errors in some places (and sometimes, you might not know if an error has occurred)
• you'll find that our newer features, such as story slideshows and shortcut keys, don't work at all

Any new features we build won't be tested in Internet Explorer after March 2021, and so there is no guarantee they will work.

What should I do?

You should make sure you switch to a modern browser.

If you access Care Opinion at work, you'll probably need your IT department to make this happen.

If you access Care Opinion on your own computer, download and install a modern browser. 

If you use a tablet or phone to access Care Opinion, it's almost certain that you are already using a modern browser. You can check which browser you are using.

What if I have questions?

If you have any questions or concerns about this change, and how it might affect you, do get in touch.

We hope that by making this change, we'll not only be able to bring you a better platform faster - but we'll also all be playing our part in contributing to a safer web for everyone.