Update, March 27, 2020 (01:30 PM ET): Google recently announced its Chrome browser and Chrome OS devices will now begin receiving updates again after it paused them last week. It presumably did this to prioritize stability as millions of people around the world started working from home earlier this month thanks to the current coronavirus pandemic. The next stable channel update will arrive the week of April 7, while Canary, dev, and beta updates will resume this week.
Google already canceled its Chrome 82 release, but Chrome 83 will feature all of the canceled version’s updates and improvements. Chrome 83 will land sometime in May, which is several weeks ahead of the initial release schedule.
Google says it will continue to monitor the situation to assure Chrome and Chrome OS are as stable, secure, and reliable as possible.
“We’ll keep everyone informed of any changes on our schedule on this blog and will share additional details on the schedule in the Chromium Developers group, as needed,” said Google. “You can also check our schedule page for specific dates for each milestone at any time.”
Original, March 18, 2020 (2:15 PM ET): If you use the Chrome browser or a Chrome OS device, you won’t get any major software updates any time soon. According to a new post on the Google blog, Chrome updates have been paused until further notice.
Google cites “adjusted work schedules” as the culprit for the delay in rolling out Chrome updates, which essentially translates to “coronavirus.” Most of Google’s employees are working remotely at the moment which would no doubt cause some problems in rolling out stable updates to the millions of people who use Chrome OS and the Chrome browser.
However, Google does emphasize that it will still prioritize updates to the current versions of Chrome and Chrome OS, including security patches for both systems. So you don’t need to worry about your systems becoming insecure, you just won’t see any new features for the time being.
Related: The best Chromebooks you can buy right now
As one would expect, Google doesn’t give any indication of how long this moratorium will last. Since we all are pretty much in the dark about how long the response to the coronavirus will need to go before life can return to normal, it could be quite some time before Chrome updates restart.
If you want to stay on top of the news regarding future Chrome OS and Chrome updates, you can follow Google’s blog here.
