Starting with Chrome 110, stable builds will arrive a week early for a small set of users
Last year, Google updated its approach to Chrome’s release schedule as it moved from a six-week to a four-week cycle, with the release of Chrome 94. The change has sped up the delivery of new features to users while keeping’s Google’s approach to development channels relatively intact: early, unstable code starts taking shape in the Canary channel, Beta lets features be tested prior to a wider public rollout, and Stable should be… well, like it says on the tin. However, Google is now switching things up a bit in order to catch last-minute issues before they cause problems for lots of users.
Starting with Chrome 110, Google will release an early preview of its browser updates on the Stable channel to a small set of users, a week ahead of its scheduled, main release. This early Stable build won’t be immediately available for download, either, and only users it’s seeded to will initially have access.
None of this is to say that Google is replacing the Beta channel with an early Stable channel. Instead, the upcoming change is meant to ensure that “any showstopping issue” is addressed at an early stage “while the impact is relatively small.” Basically, Google wants to expose potential bugs to a slightly larger audience before fully committing to a release.
To put things into perspective, let’s take a look at the upcoming release of Chrome 110. Google plans to release the beta version of Chrome 110 on January 12, 2023, and the stable version on February 7. In line with the new schedule, an early stable version will arrive for a limited group of users on February 1. And like we mentioned, the new version will only be available from the Chrome download page a week after that date, on February 7.
That said, the modified release schedule should have no effect on how frequently new Chrome features are made available to users. Google will continue to roll out milestones for one of the best web browsers every four weeks, although it may take longer sometimes.
While Google mentioned nothing about what’s to come with Chrome 110, we’re pumped for the Material You dynamic theming to appear in its stable version. This will allow the browser to change its theme based on your new tab page wallpaper, as it already does in the Chrome Canary channel. But with many experimental features getting axed at this stage before even progressing to the next step, we won’t hold our breath for that feature.
