Magazine Question

[blue_sky_jumper]

Hi All. :wavey: New member here with a newbie question. Long time handgunner, but relatively new owner of a new Glock 22. The pistol came with two mags, of course. The two magazines that came with the gun have the steel liner covered entirely (more or less) with the polymer shell, as expected.

I recently ordered 10 more mags from OMB Express and when they arrived they have a small regtangular "window" on the front of the mag, about 2/3 (3/4 maybe) from the bottom, where the steel frame is visible through the polymer. That is different from the mags received with the pistol. I'm curious about that. Can anyone give me a hint what purpose that serves and if one is a later generation of the other?

Apologies if this a question that has been asked and answered a 1000 times before. I tried to search, but couldn't find it. Thanks in advance for any info!

[naffiner]

The cutout in the front of the magazines is for an ambidextrous magazine release. I got some 9 mags with the ambi-cut in July or so of last year.

Currently the only guns with the ambi release are the 21SF and 30SF (.45 acp). In the future there may be guns in 9 and 40/357 with an ambi release, and since the cost of adding that window is minimal, i'm guessing they just want to get the mags out there and available.

[blue_sky_jumper]

Thanks Naffiner. I appreciate the help!