Google wants to make Chrome more secure and stable: added a new test channel

Google will start running one soon further testing phase for its Chrome web browser. The new preview version will be released in the Stable channel starting February 2023 and only for a small selection of users.

The version “early stable” will be available a week before the actual stable release, allowing the company to further improve the stability and security of its public-facing releases compared to today. By releasing a preview version in the Stable channel to interested users, Google can discover small youth problems of the different releases and fix them in time before spreading them to a larger number of users.

Google Chrome, the new “early stable” channel is making its debut

Currently, the release cycle of each version of Chrome has several stages: the first is in the channel Canary, in which quasi-experimental versions with potentially very unstable code are released; as major problems are patched, releases move to channels Dev and Betaand then end up in the channel Stable meant for mass users.

The new “early stable” version will be positioned between the Beta and Stable channels, and will extend the testing phases to a significantly larger user base. It will be introduced on Chrome v110, a release already passed in the Canary and Dev channels and scheduled for January 12 in the Beta channel. According to plans Chrome v11 will be released on February 7 for all users, but starting February 1, it will debut in the Early Stable channel for selected first users.